First contact was peaceful.  Then something went horribly wrong: a book that seemed like it was about the effects of meeting aliens turned out to be a really boring book about doing business in space interspersed with horrible sexism.

John Ringo’s book introduces a near future earth where aliens have created a gate allowing ships from other galaxies to pop into and out of earth’s orbit.  The aliens that do so are either Randian capitalists or filthy communist aliens.  When an extraordinary earthling discovers that aliens are willing to buy maple syrup (because it makes them trip balls) he quickly becomes rich enough to live out all kinds of capitalist fantasies.  Intergalactic trading, asteroid mining, and telling government officials to piss off.

This libertarian wet dream isn’t all fun and games.  In fact, it’s 0% fun and only 1% games.  Lots of people get killed but they aren’t white so the main character doesn’t care.  There are only two female characters in the first half of this book and one’s only described as “stacked” while the other is a murderer.  The future is bleak.