Customer Reviews (4)

A great suspenseful page turner from Haldeman.
Buying Time is another great book by a master of the genre of hard sci fi. Different from Haldeman's previous novels, Buying Time is less cerebral and more of a suspenseful thriller.Despite this change there is still a unique vision of a possible future here that Haldeman defines with an edgy cynical perspective.Haldeman's central characters defy the status quo and find themselves fighting to stay alive in a world where one corporation makes the rules about life and death.

The premise behind Buying Time is that in the near future a process is developed that lets people live forever.The catch is that only one company sells this process and it costs whoever wants it everything they own with a minimum payment of one million dollars.In addition the process only lasts for ten years.There are other onerous rules associated with making that million that makes it more difficult than usual for people to get rejuvenated.

A small group of people have managed to make a habit out of getting rejuvenated and become a subculture unto themselves.Dallas Barr is one of these people, having already lived for several hundred years.At the outset of the novel Dallas, along with a host of other immortals, is invited to join a secret group called the Steering Committee. His refusal to join initiates a series of events that set the book in motion.

The rest of the novel leads us through the mysteries of the Stileman Foundation (the makers of the Stileman rejuvenation process) the motivations of the Steering Committee and the effect it has on Dallas and his companion Maria Marconi.

Their relationship is played out in a relatively superficial manner, but the pacing of the book is such that it doesn't matter all that much.The tidbits that we are given are enough to give context to the situations that Dallas and Maria find themselves encountering.This combined with a plot filled with many mysteries keeps the pages turning throughout.

The only downside would be how the book ends.After a considerable buildup of suspense the ending feels like a bit of a cop out and doesn't seem to connect properly with the rest of the story. This is very much a book where a good middle props up a humdrum beginning and weak ending.

Buying Time is certainly a very good book, perhaps not in league with Haldeman's Worlds and Worlds Apart, but definitely a fun and thought provoking piece of science fiction.

A fun read
All the twist of a classic suspense novel with a bit of Haldeman hard sci-fi thrown in.This is one of the most entertaining books I have read in a long time.

This book really kicks
Suspenseful and action-packed, with believable (and likable) characters and a lot of solid science-fictional ideas that come together in unexpectedbut inevitable ways. If I have one criticsm it's with the ending and theway in which one character is changed by a drug experience. I just didn'tbuy it. (Yes, i'm being vague to avoid spoiling it if you haven't read it.)Still a very worthwhile read.

My favorite book
Being a devoted SF fan with a library of hundreds of books, and with an interest ranging from early works of A.E. van Vogt in the 1940s to Gibson and all ranges of the field, I was surprised to read this book by a to me unknown author and find that it was the best one I ever read. The story is suspenseful, fastpaced, and reminds me of a mix between Alistair MacLean and John le Carre set in an SF universe. Haldemans descriptions of violence are, perhaps because of his history in the military, very lifelike, and succeeds in making you feel the shock and surprise that only reallife violence can {check out the boatscene with the exploding head}. I can only say READ IT!!! ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Not just a bunch of short stories...
The stories are set in the future, where the battle suit is the king of battle.Stories by David Drake, Gordon R. Dickson, Harry Harrison, Joe Haldeman and more.The FIRST in a series of books.The other two are SPACEFIGHTERS and SUPERTANKS. All three are edited by Joe Haldemen.This book even has a few pictures in the first story showing some of the suits (as the first story is done as a history of battle suits).

collection
This is a collection of short stories by various authors ... Read more

Book Description
Jacque Le Favre is a tamer, a member of one of the exploration teams that humankind has been able to send to the stars. His first world is the second planet out from Groombridge 1618, a rather unpromising place until they encounter the alien L'vrai, with its awesome and appalling gift of telepathy. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (8)

Not Free SF Reader
Important new technologies not fully understood.


There are a couple in this book, one method actually allows physical transportation over huge distances, the other allows mental communication in a similar fashion.

The book takes a look at some of the scientific process that went into these discoveries - some accidental, and the upshot of what happens when you don't actually completely understand what is going on, or why you actually have this.

weak characters but fasinating ideas
OK, this is not the stuff of new.Basically what we have is a first contact story with a non-human race that once again proports to have staggering powers and abilities that far surpass humanity.Nevertheless, Haldeman weaves tremendous amounts of satire and wit that keep the readers attention through a rather overdone plotline.While I enjoyed the read, I found this was a book with great potential and fasinating ideas that never bears fruition.The characters are cardboard cutouts and integrating any type of romance in that atmosphere (which it did) leads to some tedious dialog and pointless situations.
The book gets interesting once we meet the alien race and becomes a great page turner.I loved Forever War as well as All My Sins Remembered but this felt a shadow of a book compared to the former two.

Quick, enjoyable read
In addition to using several sci-fi concepts in a well thought out way, this book brings up many thought provoking ideas. These mainly revolve around how much we really do not know about the universe, and the fact that hardly any of our theories work on all levels. The true gem of this book is in the ending, which makes it worth the read. To say more would take away from the book ;)

And now comes the part where I must complain. To call this 'a genuine masterpiece' as per the cover is a bit strong. This book is puffed up with such things as charts and graphs that only the most picky? will care to study. Also, an unnecessary sex scene, which clashes with the book's later attitude on the subject.

One of the best Haldeman books
Haldeman has a dedicated following for a reason, one of the big reasons is this book.I read Mindbridge after reading Worlds and Worlds Apart.Since then I've read most of Haldman's novels.My favorites are easily, Forever Peace, Forever War, Mindbridge, and Worlds Apart.This is a great place to start if you are new to Haldeman.My only complaint is it's a little short.More like a long novella.It does make for a nice quick read on a weekend when you want to relax with a good book.

Well-written, exciting book.Not perfect.
As expected from Haldeman, technically excellent book.

One way the tale may be described is as follows:Humanity discovers two 'techonologies', a 'translation' mechanism that makes possible the exploration & colonization of distant planets, and an alien organism that acts as a 'mindbridge' and pushes humanity onto the path of telepathic communication.Both discoveries are detailed out with numerous complications, each comes with its deadly and inconvenient caveats.

As a result of the Levant-Meyer transition and the mindbridge, humanity is able to meet and communicate with an alien race, the L'vrai, of shocking capabilities and mentality, and this encounter is detailed in the later parts of the book.

The description of the discovery of the Levant-Meyer translation, in terms of an accidental finding by a scientist doing a totally unrelated experiment, is a retelling of a story that has been true in many scientific discoveries.(Even has a name: Serendipitous.)The idea that humans went on using the effect, perfecting it by trial and error, but not having a theoretical grasp of why it works, is a bit harder to swallow but not totally implausible.(Being a theoretical physicist myself, I would imagine that the appearance of such an effect would lead to thousands of theorists pouncing on the problem like a pack of wolves.. of course it is totally possible that they might not be able to properly understand the effect for a long time.)

The description of Lefavre's father's scientific rise and fall, with a refutation quickly disproved, is quite cute -- and realistic.Many talks at the American Physical Society have created fame and infamy for the speakers as they claim to refute, prove, disprove theories and conjectures.

The description of the use of the Translation effect, its exploitation by money-making companies, and the highly inconvenient 'slingshot' caveat, are narrated well.The chapter detailing an advertisement is an unusual and quite effective narration style.

The second technology, the "Mindbridge", is explained with some imagination -- to be a complete mystery for two centuries, until it is found that the bridges were built as part of an elaborate game by a godlike race that existed a million years ago, on some distant planet.

This tale is told in an irregular chapter --- a flash-forward to the future.The hints in this chapter, of many wonders to come, of our descendents overcoming many barriers and possessing telepathic abilities, provides a feel-good optimistic vision.On the other hand, the flash-forward is too short -- it would be nice to know a little bit more about our future voyages to the stars!

The social vision of Jacques Lefavre's own times are not quite so hunky-dory, and has its gloomy ominous aspects, which seems more typical Haldeman.The company which in principle you can leave any time you want, but in practice you are bound to by the threat of poverty, reminds us of the sinister multinationals of today -- these multinational companies have the world in a much tighter deadly grip than they did in Haldeman's time forty years ago.Some of Haldeman's dark visions have unfortunately come true.

Like many other White writers, Haldeman's vision of the future involves mainly the white world, although there is the token chinese and the token black.Today's Third World is absent from the picture.This could mean two things -- either, the Third World has continued to wallow in poverty and the White world has managed to keep 4-fifths of the world's population confined to the peripheral status that they are in today, or, that the White world has somehow managed to do away completely with those inconvenient people already.

Granted, this is a feature common to most white SF writers (exception: Ursula LeGuin), and JH in fact deserves some credit for each of his two nonwhite characters.

For the Chinese character,I appreciated the fact that he is speaking and thinking in Chinese, i.e., Chinese still exists and the world does not all speak English.(Not all white SF authors are as merciful in their visions of their future; in particular, American authors often seem to be so uncomfortable with the existence of all those alien languages that they often quickly postulate that the World's people will all soon speak English.)

For the black female character, I appreciated the fact she was at least partly African, had a good African name unpronouncible to Jacques, and was not blackAmerican or similarly 'tamed' by the white man.

Haldeman's treatment of his secondary characters is methodical but not particularly good.I did not get to care about the team-leader of Lefavre's group (Tania), and I wasn't emotionally moved by her death.The sudden deaths in the book would have been more jarring and effective if we cared a bit more about the characters.Carol, Lefavre's mate/wife appears to be a person the reader might have liked if the author had done her more justice.The idea of Carol's living on in Jacques' head, after her death, had little emotional appeal to me since I did not care much about her in the first place.

More praiseworthy is the way the author introduces us to Lefavre himself, his brutality and humanness together, so that we know him as an unpleasant person but do not dislike him.(But perhaps don't care too much about him either.)His characterization is somehow central to the story -- it is his unpleasantness (according to the L'vrai, his "animal-ness") that allow the L'vrai to communicate through him.Again, this characterization was technically adequate but not quite masterly.

In summary, despite its shortcomings, a book well worth reading if you're a SF fan. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Deservedly considered a classic
I'm not a fan of SF, although I feel I've read my share, but this book kept coming to my attention. Call it kismet, but after reading it, I can only be glad that fate or whatever kept thrusting it under my nose. Those who quibble about the 'quality' of the writing may be missing the point or perhaps they simply prefer the longwinded ramblings of SF authors such as Frank Herbert or space operas of Frederick Pohl. As a tale of humanity faced with the inhumanity of war, set against a futuristic backdrop, 'Forever War' should be required reading for every politician willing to send someone else out to kill or be killed because those in power failed to do their jobs. The author may have had Vietnam in mind when this was written, but the story more than applies to the ongoing American war in Iraq and Afghanistan. Yeah, that war, the one where the pols lied and continue to lie. No one wants this war except the Bush administration and what Ike referred to as the 'military industrial complex.' Consider this book as an example of lessons we have not yet learned.

The original paperback edition of this SF classic
If you look up the other editions you can read many other reviews of other versions of this book.This is how it originally was printed.

William Mandella is conscripted out of grad school to fight in the war against the Taurans.Due to relativistic effects years have passed while he has only experienced one year of service, and he returns to what is literally not 'only' socially a different world.Since he can't fit in he re-enlists, although he is not a perfect soldier and the war isn't something he really believes in - just the best of poor choices.

I highly recommend this book.

... Read more

Customer Reviews (14)

dissenting voice
So many others have raved about this book, I had to offer an opposing opinion. I read most of Haldeman's books in a two month window after being impressed with Forever Peace. AMSR had was my least favorite of them all, and was a chore to get through. I prefer books that have interesting plots and focus on character. The premise of AMSR is that the reader follows the main character as he inhabits different personas as an agent of the government. Problem is that the different sections seem disjointed, so I didn't get a feeling of continuous plot. And because the main character spends so much time impersonating other people, I didn't get a clear sense of who he was. As a result I was bored nearly from page 1.

After reading so many Haldeman books, I began to realize that he recycles themes endlessly. If you want a book about the immorality of governments, try The Forever War, which is one of his best. If you want a book about changing identities, you can get that in Camouflage, which is not a great book but at least I thought Haldeman did a better job of depicting a consistent main character despite the fact that his outer identity was always changing.

Impressive
There is nothing new here.We've seen this idea done over and over again in various forms and media.The idea of a secret agent who becomes disillusioned is rather large cliche and I am the first to express total surprise at how quickly I got absorbed into this story.


Otto McGavin is the protagonist who's job is to do the government's dirty work.We have the obligatory mistakes and stumbling before Otto proves his worth.We have the inevidable bitterness as time goes on watching the character decay and of course the inevidable "oops my government is bad" toward the end.So what makes this a classic?As always it is the author's ability to weave the story together and set a pace that moves quickly leaving you drawn into the tale.This would not have worked as a serious and detailed novel.Instead we have a series of short stories woven together to move the story forward in a quick fashion.The ending is both expected and brilliant at the same time.Some may say this is dated but I disagree.We are living in another vietnam that is more hostile, more brutal and unlike before, never ending and what better time than now to think about the issues brought up in this book.

What is the Worth of a Man?
In the mid-1970s Joe Haldeman was a comet in the science fiction field. In a very short period of time he became referred to as `the new Heinlein', a writer informed by the influences of the New Wave embodied in J.G. Ballard and Harlan Ellison, yet drawing on the tradition of `hard' science fiction and adventure.
His first novel The Forever War won both the Hugo and Nebula Awards for Best Novel in 1975. It examined interstellar warfare with a decidedly post-Vietnam jaundiced look, coupling this with use of relativity theory to show the effects of time passing more slowly for combatants, for whom everyone they know dies of old age during the war. It combined the toughness and scientific rigour of Poul Anderson with the emotional range and deft writing of Ray Bradbury. His second novel Mindbridge set an industry record for the largest ever advance (to that point) for a science fiction novel. His third was All My Sins Remembered.
In terms of its composition, this book was a collection of three previously published long stories or novellas, with `sandwich' material between them to connect the stories - and shape the eventual meaning of the narrative as a whole. The book follows Otto McGavin, a young Anglo-Buddhist on a future Earth who is recruited without his knowledge by the Confederacion, a virtually all-powerful organisation that combines corporate, government and military interests. He is trained to become a Prime Operator, one of only twelve skilled agents who carry out dangerous and highly important missions - often including assassination - both on Earth and in the many other worlds colonised over the centuries.
Each of the three stories details one of his missions, taking place over a period of no less than twenty-three years, up until he reaches the retirement age of forty-five. Each mission involves immersion therapy and hypnosis, with McGavin's personality painted over with the persona of somebody who he is impersonating. Because of the situations he must place himself in, there are often distressing results. When your body has been made to resemble a rapist, and the rapist's personality is overriding your own, how can you be responsible for what happens during your mission?
Between each story McGavin receives treatment to strip the layers of persona from him like an onion. He is debriefed and goes through past missions. But as the novel goes on, the reader becomes aware of the cumulative psychic damage going on. How much longer can he maintain any sense of self at all? Does he even exist any more, or is he merely a function of the Confederacion's will? The final page is perhaps the bleakest ending ever in science fiction, evoking dismay and frustration and even rage in the reader. In an instrumentalist society, perhaps in the end a job is all that one is, and nothing else.
Haldeman's skills as a writer of action are to the forefront in All My Sins Remembered. The sudden eruptions of violence and gore that punctuate the book are startling and convincing. One wonders how much Haldeman's tour of duty in Vietnam, which informed so much of The Forever War, also informs his portrait here of a man lost and submerged within the machinery of the Confederacion.
Since the point of McGavin's character is that he is faceless, and for much of the book has his personality suppressed, it is a remarkable feat that Haldeman keeps the reader concerned for him and feels such anger at the inevitable ending. Even in the limited space allowed for his original persona, McGavin's strong religious beliefs, so sullied by the climax, define him as a worthwhile human being, fundamentally decent and even admirable. The other characters in the book are sketched quickly, as befitting their origins as characters in a novella, but vividly, such as the alien philosopher who translates his function as "keeper of useful sarcasms."
The universe of the future is largely kept off the page, only small details serving to evoke a much wider canvas. Referring to a fencing master who taught him how to duel, McGavin says that he came from France. The exchange that follows says much in very few words: "All the way from France!" "No, not the planet; those are countries on Earth." When he travels around a city, McGavin uses the "slidewalk", a wonderful little detail that reminds one of Heinlein's classic line, "The door dilated," as a way of indicating future technology without the need to explain it. The linguistic origins of a term like `Confederacion', and the construction of a term such as `Anglo-Buddhist', also hint at future changes without beating the reader over the head.
Although bleak in a way very much of the period in which it was written, All My Sins Remembered is essential reading for anyone interested in science fiction or espionage thrillers. Even if one is not, it is a frightening portrait of what can happen to the human soul under a despotic regime. This is Haldeman's best book.


All My Sins Remembered by Joe Haldeman (Gollancz, 1977)

one of the finest works of sci fi
This is one of the best books I have read and read and read again. It's episodic format lends itself the the unfolding of excellent scenes written well. Sci Fi as if Hemingway were still writing in a new genre.

It has been reprinted in England by Gollancz in 2003 (ISBN: 0575072814)

Odd and great
This is the story of Otto McGavin, an agent who's job it is to protect the rights of aliens in the areas of space controlled by humans. The book is part sci-fi, part mystery, and part philosophical satire. This might seem an odd mix on paper but it is right up Haldeman's alley.This is the stuff he does really well.

For most of the novel this is a good story - well written and enjoyable to read. The last section however (the story is really more like several different novellas about McGavin's life) is knock-your-socks-off brilliant.I read it in one sitting and after taking a deep breath went back and read that section again.It's that good. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Peace May Have a Huge Cost!
Ediciones B has "Nova", a sci-fi collection with many interesting titles & authors in Spanish version.
Since 2004 Ediciones B has launched a pocket book collection "Byblos" with no specific genre defined. Fortunately for us, sci-fi buffs, some volumes pertain to this genre, allowing us to access a very inexpensive and high quality product.

Joe Haldeman (1943) wrote two "Hugo" & "Nebula" awarded novels: "The Forever War" (1975) and the present one "Forever Peace" (1997).
This is not a minor achievement. He produces high quality sci-fi as his "Worlds" trilogy, his also "Hugo" & "Nebula" awarded novella "The Hemingway Hoax" (1990) and a number of excellent short stories.
Both novels show Haldeman's war experience, he saw action at Vietnam where he was seriously wounded. Joe shows his intimate knowledge of suffering and senseless killing and the devastating effects they produce on combat personnel.

The story centers on Julian Class who's a complex character.
His vocation and main interest is physics, researching & teaching. He is Afro-American and maintains a serious relationship with his white mentor & elder colleague Prof. Blaze Harding.
On top of all that he is a military "mechanic" with ten days service and twenty days leave allowing his academic activities. Being a "mechanic" means he control and operate a "soldierboy" a mechanical soldier remotely droved with an almost telepathic connection. Even if "mechanics" suffer no physical injuries, they feel the pain of any damage on their "soldierboy".

The first half of the book describes Julian everyday life and the world backdrop reflecting an endless war between First World vs. Third World nations, with lots of innocent casualties on both sides of the line. In this part of the story there are some very interesting meditations about war, justice, human nature, economic inequality and some other serious topics.
The second half of the novel focuses on two axis: the danger of universe extinction due to a mega-project trying to recreate the Big Bang situation and a conspiracy to attain endless peace for Humankind (at a high price to be sure).

"Forever Peace" is a high quality sci-fi novel deserving the awards obtained.
Do not let it pass by!
Reviewed by Max Yofre. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Haldeman's First Short Story Collection
"Infinite Dreams" is Joe Haldeman's first short story collection ("Dealing in Futres" is the second), and while I'd give the nod to "Futures" in terms of more consistent quality, "Dreams" is a decent collection in its own right.Haldeman knows how to spin a good tale, much like Stephen King with his short stories.Haldeman's usually come from a science fiction angle, and he's one of that genre's more grounded authors, including here a war analogy story based upon his own experiences in Vietnam ("A Mind of His Own").

Some of the other better stories in this collection include "The Mazel Tov Revolution," an example of Jewish science fiction; "All the Universe in a Mason Jar" a humorous story about aliens and moonshine; "26 Days, On Earth," a fine coming of age story; and "Summer's Lease," a poiniant philosophical story.

Overall, any lover of science fiction should love this collection.

Another good short-story collection
Of the three collections by Haldeman that I've read, I'd have to put this after None So Blind, but before Dealing In Futures, even though I gave them all 4's.It contains a good number of stories, and as always, the firstentry is excellent.Two of the reasons I love Haldeman's work are evidenthere - his descriptive ability, and the fact that his stories don't alwaysend on an upbeat note.One problem with this collection in general,however: Haldeman is a combat veteran and has a graduate degree inphysics... almost every story's main character has some advancedmath/physics aptitude, is a vet, or both.I can understand puttingyourself into your work, but this is too self-indulgent.If Haldemanweren't such a good writer, I would have tired of this very quickly.

*Unfortunately, you'll have to haunt the used bookstores for this one. ... Read more

Amazon.com
"In action, a writer looks pretty much like a clerk." So Joe Haldeman writesin the introduction to this collection. But Haldeman, like Einstein, proves that clerkscan have enough vision to rock the cosmos. This book includes 11 stories and fourstory poems, ranging in length from two pages to just over 100. Together they haveearned two Nebula, two Hugo and one World Fantasy awards. Each one showcases theauthor's grasp of what it means to be alive and human (or inhuman), written with apowerful clarity and a subtle imagination. Publishers Weekly called this one "astunner."Book Description
An award-winning visionary and true master of worlds and wonders, the man whom author David Brin calls "one of the nest prophetic writers of our times" once again demonstrates the breathtaking scope and startling power of his imagination--transporting the reader across space and time, into the heart of darkness and the soul of madness.

From the spinetingling account of an intergalactic poacher's rite of passage, to an erotic and ultimately uplifting modern fable of inner scars and otherworldly transformation, here are fifteen remarkable tales and "story poems"--featuring four HUGO and NEBULA Award-winners, including the classic novella THE HEMINGWAY HOAX. These are stories that sing with a unique and haunting voice--stories of war's monsters, of brutal art and lost stars. . .and a brief, miraculous moment called childhood, when a young girl can actually fly. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (8)

Not bad.
The storie's were good with the exception of the Vietnam war referance in most of the storie's. 1 or 2 would have been alright,but not most of them.

Haldeman writes like SF like a poet
Joe Haldeman is probably the best active living writer of science fiction. He also writes much more like a poet than other SF writers.He never usestoo many words, and never too few.He write to get a point across, andsucceeds much of the time.Of course, because of this, when he fails hemisses the mark by a wide margin.

His novels "The ForeverWar" and "The Hemingway Hoax" are two of the best SF novelsof the last half century.

Of course, after reading NONE SO BLIND, youfind that Haldeman does write poetry.The collection is more shortstories, but the poems in this are very good.My personal favorite of hispoems here is "The Homecoming", which many in SF can very muchrelate too.

But the short story "None So Blind", from whichthe collection takes it title, is here.And that is a great short story. "The Hemingway Hoax" is also included here, as is"Graves".I am of a younger generation than Haldeman, and youwould think a short story set, more or less, in Vietnam wouldn't connectwith me.But for some reason, it still gives me the willies.

Haldemanis somebody all intelligent people should be reading.This collection ofshort works is some of his best stuff.

Intriguing tales that GRIP the imagination
I don't usually turn to short stories for a good read, but I was completely fascinated and satisfied by this collection of 11 tales and 4 story poems.

Haldeman's unbounded imagination has yielded a variety ofmost curious beings and circumstances, augmented by many of his personalexperiences that sparked or helped to form these vignettes.

I appreciatedthe biographical insights that he provided in his introduction and in thebrief addenda that follow each piece.

Some short, some quite long, buteach one a thought provoker with haunting images that will continue to pullat you after you believed that you'd laid this one down.

Read this book.
Haldeman is quickly becoming one of my favorite science fiction authors.This collection of short stories will make you want to burn a sick-day just to be able to stay home and finish it.

I feel I can forgive him forwriting Forever Peace now.:)

Haldeman has the nack for describing a lotwith very few words; something I wish more authors would do.

great stuff
I wish I could give it 9 out of 10.This is a wonderful collection of short stories, a novella, and poems.The novella, "The Hemmingway Hoax" is quite confusing, but the remaining short stories make up forit, especially the first two.Haldeman can present a very vivid pictureusing few words, an ability that many authors lack.Also, I don't getaround to reading many poems these days, but the ones contained here arevery enjoyable.Read this book! ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Could have been so much more.

This book arrived in my hands with much advance praise and high recommendations. It did not live up to its press. Joe Haldeman, who wished to become a power in the genre of Science-Fiction,wanted to write a book in the style of, and after that famous worthy Robert A. Heinlien. Unfortunately Haldeman had neither the skill nor the gifts that Heinlien did.

This book, The Forever War, like Heinlein's Starship Troopers or Orphanage by Robert Buettner, is set in a fictional future when earth is at war with an unknown alien species. It deals with issues such as conscription, political unrest, and a human race devastated by the effects of an interplanetary war.

In this book soldiers are all conscripted from the intelligentsia, to lead mankind in space war against unknown forces. Our Hero, if we can call him a hero, is Private William Mandella.But in the future, soldiers are psychologically conditioned to kill in a frenzy, and to be dependent upon drugs. Unlike both Buettner's and Heinlien's books that have drugs as a detriment to military life, Haldeman uses drugs for everything from recreation to encouraged addictions.

This book, though the winner of many awards including the Nebula and Hugo, is not worth your time and effort. One of the possible reasons for this is that the book has gone through four different major revisions. It was rejected by eighteen publishers before finally being published in 1974 with some major editing. It was not believed that as a book about the `Vietnam War', the forever war would have a large market. But a publisher took a chance and published it. Then The Forever War went on and won a few awards.

Since then, the author has revised it through two major revisions. The first put a section back in that messed up the timeline of the story, and the second returned it to the original unedited version, known as the definitive edition of the book. It is the only version currently in print.

The writing is poor, and this unedited - so-called restored version of the book - is lackluster at best and downright boring!The story drags at many points and, at other times, so little story is given that it seems to jump from scene to scene without filling you in on how our characters got where they are.

This book in some version may have won the top two science fiction novel of the year awards, but it is really not worth the effort. Read either Heinlien's or Buettner's version of the story. Both are much more satisfying and enjoyable.

(First Published in Imprint 2006-09-01 as `Hate It' part of the `Love It/Hate It' book review column.)
... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Great spy book with a nice sci-fi twist
I picked this book up in a used bookstore as I am a fan of Haldeman's Forever books and enjoyed it immensley. The premise is a basic spy story, a KGB spy placed in America and awaiting activation who happens to end up being a sort of double agent with the CIA. Basic spy stuff and while interesting, it is nothing spectacular.

Oh, I forgot to mention this spy in question has invented a device (a watch) that can control people's minds, hypnotize them in a sense. Which mixed in with a spy book makes a great read. If you see this book in a used store or if hopefully it gets reprinted, grab it!

A favorite fantasy - done in a reasonably moral way
Ever daydream you can control other peoples minds?

Well, this isn't a porn story! (grin)

It's a fast paced delightful action thriller.Would make a very entertaining movie.... oh well, sad that it's out of print.

How to save the world with a trick watch
The KGB has planted Nick in the in deep cover as a professor who makes a powerful discovery. The CIA/KGB/FBI and the cast of Friends (OK, not them as well), are after the secret, but he has his own plans to sort out the mess that the world is in. A satisfying book, that works on more than one level. ... Read more

Book Description
This digital document is an article from Extrapolation, published by Extrapolation on September 22, 2004. The length of the article is 4750 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Hoaxing Hemingway: Ernest Hemingway as character and presence in Joe Haldeman's The Hemingway Hoax (1990).(Critical Essay)
Author: Donald E. Morse
Publication: Extrapolation (Refereed)
Date: September 22, 2004
Publisher: Extrapolation
Volume: 45Issue: 3Page: 227(10)

Article Type: Critical Essay

Distributed by Thomson Gale ... Read more

Book Description
Word count: 3916. ... Read more