Freedom Lost started out as a great book. The concept of the mall community was original. The cryo units were a good touch, although I doubt anyone would really have been fooled into thinking they were going to pick up a new member. It was about time J.B.'s glasses broke. I was surprised that the Lester character was brought back after we thought he had been killed. I got a kick out of Doc getting drunk, it was a bit out of character for him, but it was still funny. It was annoyingly predictable that Freedom Mall burned in the end though. J.B.'s glaucoma, and Baron Mogan are two new plot possibilities that I hope to see come up in future books. It was a great book, but the Mall burning was so pathetically predictable that I give it a 8.0

This adventure has Ryan's gang starting from a redoubt, traveling to a ville that is really a big mall converted into a sort of self contained town. That's about all this book was really about. This novel had some good and some bad, I will describe some of this as follows:

Positive aspects of the story are the interesting things the party encounters during the course of the book. The cryo lab, the scene with J.B. getting an eye exam, the various stores the group finds in the mall, including a funny scene at a comic shop, and a number of references to "pre-dark" stuff. The characterizations were good.
A fair amount of series continuity is present in this book, and starting out of the gate, the episode got me interested because of the return of Lester from the novel "Skydark".

But this book has its negatives. Overall I got the impression that there was a lack of excitement or a kick to the story, there was no underlying getup-and-go to it at all. The book plodded on with very little action and no promising plot emerged. It was unsatisfying. Kind of like ordering a steak dinner, and finding out the steak is missing. There was no meat to the book. And most of the action scenes were dull and uneventful.
And the continuity I mentioned? Well here is an example of how too MUCH continuity can be a problem. For example, when Dean and Jak are in the video arcade, when Jak finds out Dean doesn't remember their first experience with video games in the earlier novel "Shadowfall", Jak then explains what happened the first time. This created three problems. First, at least a page and a half was pretty much cut and pasted from the scene from the earlier book. That is a little overdoing it, and it also led to the second problem, which was the way the scene was entwined in the present. I got confused about where the flashback started and ended, and had to get the other book off the shelf and compare the two to see what was going on. The third problem was that this all takes place in a part of the book that was long overdue for an action scene. Getting a cut and paste from an earlier book instead, I felt kind of cheated out of something better that should have been there.
But this kind of feeling was the norm for much of the novel, and it really in my opinion was nothing more than filler in the series.

Since this book was steeped in mediocrity, I can't rate "Freedom Lost" any higher than a five, which considering its drawbacks, I am really being generous with that rating.

Well I just finished Freedom Lost. In my opinion it was one of the better books in the series. This book sort of took me by surprise. When I started reading it I kept thinking that it was going to be the same ole stuff that happens in all the books. In some ways it was but with a little twist. I liked the addition of the sec droid as Ryan’s opponent in the gladiator contest. I also really liked the meeting a Baron that wasn’t completely evil. Although he did have his own agenda it was nice that he wasn’t all bad. I also really enjoyed the scene when they were trying to get Dean out. I liked the way J.B. was snapping at Ryan. It was a nice touch or realism. Even the best of friends are going to snap at each other occasionally, especially after spending several years together, 24 hours a day.

Now for a few complaints. Even though the Mall setting was a very nice touch, It seems to me that a place of that size and with all of the pre-dark stuff inside. It just seems reasonable that at some point in all of there wonderings they would have heard about it before. It seems even more likely that some evil, greedy, sexually depraved baron would have heard about it and attempted to take it over. And considering what finally happened to it. It probably wouldn’t have taken much in order to accomplish that.

With that said, my final rating for this book will be an 8.

WOW! I can't believe I'm the 1st to review this. Okay, FREEEDOM LOST was a fast and furious read, insofar as action/adventure goes. I have to say that I never was bored, just after reading such strong new beginnings with new writers, it's plotline felt a little flat.
Not the best, but definately not the worst I've read in this series.
It's hard to accept a new writer unless they have a solid grasp of the characters and their world. Not that this particular writer doesn't, he has written a couple of great ones, but this one fell a little short.
Michael Herring's cover art was cool though!

A great adventure, love the idea of making a Mall an indoor ville,everything under one roof.
It's a shame it burned down in the end. Thought Ryans fight in the pit with the droid was pretty cool. The part about J.B getting his new glasses was interesting. This book is one of my favorites.

I liked this book as well, it is sort of the start of a long series that follows as problems are heard of Ryan's homeland, so in a way this is the start of a series of books leading up to the baronies trilogy as this is the start of them moving to Front Royal..

Anyway, its about Ryan and co. visiting a ville inside a mall, Jak and Dean cause trouble in a arcade, and Ryan is forced to become a sec man, its yet another book that I see as true deathlands, a good book!!