Book Review: Alongside Night (1979)

30th Anniversary Edition: The prophetic novel of America’s return
by J. Neil Schulman

Alongside_NightCommemorating Independence Day, 2016. — ed.

“J. Neil Schulman’s Alongside Night may be even more relevant today than it was in 1979. Hopefully, the special thirtieth edition of this landmark work of libertarian science fiction will inspire a new generation of readers to learn more about the ideas of liberty and become active in the freedom movement.” — Dr. Ron Paul

The 1979 publication of this Prometheus Award-winning novel of agorist-libertarian[1] resistance was, along with L. Neil Smith’s The Probability Broachin the same year, a bellwether event in the American liberty movement. As a contemporary of both authors, and having a structured prejudice for Randian heroic individualist romantic fiction, I remember being nonetheless gratified that writers of my generation were emerging in the blossoming freedom context of that time. Continue reading

Movie Review: Alongside Night (2015, updated version)

An impressive and important artwork in the libertarian cultural oeuvre (8/10)[1]
Written and directed by J. Neil Schulman, produced by Patrick Heller
Reviewed by Brian R. Wright

Alongside_NightPatrick Heller of Liberty Coin Service, who financed this film, is a personal friend of mine and political ally going back to the early 1970s. To use a military analogy, back in the day of Rampant Campus Collectivism we charged up a lot of the same hills under heavy fire… and continue to fight for reason and liberty in our much more sinister Era of Polished Global Fascism. I’d say we’ve managed to secure some beach heads for what we (with others)—and certainly the writer/director of Alongside Night, Mr. J. Neil Schulmansee as the ultimate if not imminent victory of Worldwide Liberty.

In 1979, when Neil’s novel was written, only a handful of authors had emerged to work Ayn Rand’s corner (philosophical individualism) or, say, Robert Heinlein’s hard science fiction path—Heinlein had a more martial-society ideal for the heroic person. [Yet, Heinlein came up with any number of mindbending plot devices and convincing tech innovations.] Anyway, Alongside Night along with L. Neil Smith’s Probability Broach were the ones most of us contemporaries in the modern libertarian movement read and discussed.  Continue reading