LIBERTY BELL AND
THE LAST AMERICAN
by
James Stoddard
Alternative History / Science Fiction
Pages: 347 pages
Publication Date: April 4, 2021
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Americans love their Constitution. In seventeen-year-old Liberty Bell’s era it has become a myth.
Centuries after the Great Blackout obliterates the world’s digitized information, America’s history is forgotten. Only confused legends remain, written in The Americana, a book depicting a golden age where famous Americans from different eras lived and interacted with one another during the same time.
Raised on the stories and ideals from The Americana, Liberty Bell joins secret agent Antonio Ice on a quest for her country. But in the Old Forest, forgotten technologies are reawakening. Historic figures such as Albert Einstein, Harriet Tubman, and Thomas Jefferson are coming to life.
The source of their return, a mystery hidden since before the apocalypse, lies waiting for Liberty. Her knowledge of The Americana holds the key to unraveling the riddles of the past.
Will the American continent return to the freedom of Liberty’s forefathers? Or will it descend into a dark age of tyranny? The choices she makes will determine its fate. For, as The Americana says, “Those who don’t know history are destined to repeat it—and forfeit all coupons, discounts, and travel miles.”
Filled with quotations from exceptional Americans, here is a humorous and poignant celebration of America and its Constitution.
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I’m splitting my review of LIBERTY BELL AND THE LAST AMERICAN into two parts: aspects of the novel I really enjoyed and those which were a challenge for me personally as a reader.
Joys to read:
The concept of LIBERTY BELL is clever and original. Books and historical knowledge in this future world are lost in a great cataclysm/EMP pulse. Little remains of the former United States, its government, rules, and documents. After a few hundred years, a scholar takes it upon himself to collect the stories of the surviving people. These stories, named The Americana, are an assortment of oral histories, which easily reminded me of the Telephone Game. (Do people still play that? No idea!) The Americana is a mash up of historical and pop culture accuracies and inaccuracies. Characters like Waynejon, the immortal Pilgrim, interact with presidents Lincoln and Washington.
In addition to The Americana, the novel showcases several unexpected plot points. A good vs evil chess set comes to life at Dizzy Land! Jessie James is a good guy who idolizes the Rough Riders. I found myself wondering how I would reimagine American history if given the chance. Let’s just say there would be a lot more founding mothers rather than founding fathers in my world.
There are also some other surprise twists which I won’t spoil for you! How about a fun quote instead:
“You, sir, are a villain and a cab, so just taxi yourself out of here!”
Mr. Stoddard states in the author’s notes “the characters speak the language of a people a thousand years in our future.” There are clever malapropisms, alternative spellings, and other grammatical choices throughout the novel. Luckily, I’m generally a phonetic reader and find it easy to interpret alternative spellings like Yooessay used for U.S.A. I chuckled more than once while reading these words.
(TRIGGER WARNING for those who struggle with misspellings and non-capitalized words in books!)
Liberty Bell herself is a clever, delightful, and patriotic character. She’s one of the few characters who can read ‘ancient’ English signs and books. I appreciate her courageous attitude! Sure, she’s scared and nervous, but she rises to every occasion. Her joy for the constitution and American history are put to the test during the novel in ways I don’t know that I’d be able to endure.
Challenges:
Liberty and Antonio spend a significant amount of time on their quest for the treasures of Fort Knocks. There is map consulting, horse riding, enemy evading, plant and animal identification, and path crossing with many characters along the way. For me, all the journeying slowed down the main plot point, that of getting the treasure at Fort Knocks. The many character interactions were important for the plot, but the roaming seemed to go on and on for me as a reader. I don’t have a recommendation on how the journey could have been made shorter, unfortunately. I find myself needing less journey in books in general.
Although I enjoyed the malapropisms at the beginning of the novel, I found them taxing after awhile. There were several words that I had to guess the meanings of, taking me out of the reading experience.
While Liberty Bell and her companions are on their journey, there is a general lack of other female characters within the novel. I would have appreciated more historical and/or contemporary female characters for Liberty to bond with. I also found it frustrating that nearly every male character Liberty encounters immediately develops feelings for her. I do believe that romantic feelings are not necessary for every situation in a novel.
LIBERTY BELL AND THE LAST AMERICAN presents a unique look at a possible American future, including a skilled look at patriotism and the importance of understanding our own history.
And an appreciation of printed books once that EMP hits!
“Not only were there three periodicals and a newspaper on display, but she counted twelve books, surely worth a Bezos’ ransom.”
Thanks to author James Stoddard and Lone Star Book Blog Tours for providing this opportunity to review LIBERTY BELL AND THE LAST AMERICAN. I received the novel free in exchange for my honest review.
James Stoddard’s short fiction has appeared in science fiction publications such as “Amazing Stories” and “The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction.” “The Battle of York” was included in Eos Books’ Years Best SF 10, and “The First Editions” appeared in The Year’s Best Fantasy 9 from Tor Books. His novel, “The High House” won the Compton Crook Award for best fantasy by a new novelist and was nominated for several other awards. He lives with his wife in a winding canyon in West Texas.
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Thank you so much for your thoughtful and honest review. You bring up an important point–one of the difficulties of writing this book is that I had to use historical characters most readers would recognize. I also wanted to avoid being *too* contemporary lest simply mentioning certain names might make it “political.” Sadly, this limited the number of women I could include, so often they only received brief mentions: Rosa Parks, Sally Ride, Christa McAuliffe, Hedy Lamarr (Look her up. Fascinating!), Dolly Madison, and others. I was able to highlight Harriet Tubman–almost every bit of her dialogue is exact quotes. And the young Navajo woman, Poco, and her fellows, travel with Liberty and Antonio through the second half of the book. Still, I sometimes agonized over leaving out so many who helped build this country, and even considered writing an apology at the beginning of book. I appreciate you mentioning this!
James Stoddard recently posted…Symbols and Allegory
Thanks, James! And that’s a valid point on the contemporary characters!
The premise of this book sounds intriguing, but I take that trigger warning seriously! Ha! I also have changed in my reading and no longer have much patience for the journey, which I recognize in myself as the lack of time to really spend enveloped in a reading world. But I am not giving up, and this story has me fascinated enough I will give it a read. And hmmm. Maybe knowing the misspellings are intentional will FREE ME! Thanks for a great review.
Kristine Anne Hall recently posted…Targeted: Three Romantic Suspense Novellas ~ Lone Star Book Blog Tours Notable Quotables, Book Trailer, & Giveaway!
Thanks, Kristine! And my issues with journey are all Julie’s fault! But yes, you should check it out!