Old Twentieth

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• ISBN13: 9780441013432
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Description

The passengers aboard the starship Ad Astra spend most of their time on the thousand-year journey to Beta Hydrii within the virtual reality of twentieth-century Earth. There, they can experience nostalgia for the hardship of a life they've since evolved beyond.

But when people inside the virtual reality chamber start to die, engineer Jacob Brewer finds himself face-to-face with a sentient machine obsessed with humanity. It has put itself in charge of the ship. And it wants to talk to Jacob...

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Customer Reviews

I found the backstory disgusting
I found the backstory of this scifi novel disgusting. The rich manage to buy immortality for themselves, and then kill off everyone else with a bioengineered plague and turn the world into their country club. I suppose that would be one way to end poverty! And it is a logical extrapolation of current trends, since the rich have certainly been acquiring ever more wealth and power at the expense of the rest of us, at least here in the U.S. I am sure there are some fat cats out there who would carry out the scenario in the book, given the chance.

I was so upset at this that I almost didn't read the rest of the book. As it was, I had a hard time relating to the rich kid protagonist and his pals, and kept more or less hoping for them to get their comeuppance. Which they sort of do, but only after living it up for a couple of centuries or so.

Having said this, I have to admit that Haldeman has written a very good book, which held my interest throughout. I have been fascinated by the idea of "time travel" by means of virtual reality (which, unlike the real thing, is probably at least theoretically possible) ever since seeing the movie "The Thirteenth Floor". The "visits" to different years of the twentieth century were the best part of the story for me. Haldeman should consider writing some straight historical novels, if he hasn't already.

If you liked the virtual time travel part of "Old Twentieth", you should enjoy Raymond Gallun's classic scifi novel "The Eden Cycle", if you can find it. (Gallun wrote about virtual reality before the term itself was invented.) You should also like "The Thirteenth Floor", as well as the movie "Westworld", in which virtual time travel is achieved in a somewhat different manner.

2010-04-04 | The Realist (Oregon USA) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 3

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Great story, disappointing ending
I've been a Haldeman fan since _The Forever War_. This book starts out with great potential, functional immortality, biological warfare, generation ship space travel, VR time travel, all sorts of interesting memes to explore. It was an interesting read, right up to the last dozen pages. I went back and re-read the ending three times, and I still think it's weak.

2009-11-30 | Grimmund (Windhaven, Northshield) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 3

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Ruined by a cop-out ending
As you'll read in the more positive reviews of this book, most of it is an enjoyable exploration of an interesting world, with decently developed characters, an intriguing history, some rather engrossing puzzles. Then in literally the last five pages Haldeman essentially throws it all away, with an ending so bad, so abrupt, so self-denying, that it reaches back and sucks most of the interest out of the earlier narrative. Not only are we not going to get the answers to the various puzzles, but the puzzles themselves might not really have existed at all. Or something.

Not recommended, unless you must read everything he's ever written. Or if you can stop just before the end, and finish it better yourself.

2009-07-06 (Mohegan Lake, NY USA) | Helpful Votes: 2 | Rating: 2

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Misled quality
They said the book was in "very good" condition, but it was dirty, wrinkled and the cover was creased. I'm not buying from this company ever again.(A 3rd party bookseller-Not Amazon)

2009-05-16 | RC (Virginia) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 2

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Another good book by Joe Haldeman
_Old Twentieth_ by Joe Haldeman is another good work by this outstanding author. I didn't think it as good as either _Forever War_ or _Forever Peace_ but nonetheless found it engaging.

The book opens up with a battle scene in 1915, Gallipoli, something that shouldn't surprise the reader too much as one of the basic premises of the book, as relayed on the back cover, is that in the future many people use a time machine of sorts, an incredibly sophisticated virtual reality program that lets its users vividly relive just about any aspect of life in the 20th century. So completely immersive is the experience that the users while in the machine are unaware that they are in a virtual reality program and they actually think they are the characters they inhabit.

Why the 20th century? It addition to I imagine the copious amounts of research and in particular media images from the era, it was the last century in world history in which the "life-to-death-arc" still existed for everyone on the planet, something fascinating to many of the characters in the story. Starting in the 21st century actual immortality became a viable option. Thanks to the Becker-Cendrek Process (or the BCP pill as it was popularly known), one's body can become a self-repairing machine, immune to disease and many injuries. In a lengthy but still interesting chapter of nearly pure exposition, we learn that the pill was available at first only to the extremely wealthy and that this generated great jealousy, jealousy so immense and far-reaching that a war resulted, the Immortality War (or just the War), a conflict that eventually resulted in the death of nearly everyone that had not taken the pill (7 billion people), leaving 200 million immortals left alive.

Fast forward to the future. It took many decades of work to get the world running to any degree again, as most of those who took the BCP pill were not those who actually made society run at the nuts-and-bolts level (your nurses, mechanics, farmers, garbage collectors, plumbers, police officers, fire fighters, construction workers, etc.). However society had recovered enough to send a fleet of five ships on a thousand year journey to a planet discovered orbiting Beta Hydrii, a planet with at least one planet with free oxygen in its atmosphere and liquid water.

The substantially sized crew of the five ships settle in for a long journey to their incredibly distant location, many people with more than one job and a number of hobbies to keep them entertained. One of them, Jacob Brewer, in addition to being an accomplished musician and a chef of French and Spanish cuisine, is a virtual reality engineer, working hard to keep the fleet's "time machine" running, making sure not only its technical aspects are up to standards but making sure that there are no anomalies or anachronisms in what the machine displays to its users (for instance making sure a famous art exhibition is not in two places at the same time).

The fun starts when Jacob finds there are some subtle, minor anomalies. He finds that New York City in certain year in the middle twentieth century starts to smell too clean. Not an absence of smell, but some of the olfactory substrata of the city is absent. While investigating this relatively minor problem someone dies in New York, in the simulator. This is not supposed to happen, not for an immortal, certainly not in virtual reality.

What is going on? Is the machine accidentally killing people? Does it need repair or need to be shut off entirely? Or is it deliberately killing people? Perhaps the incredibly sophisticated program has grown to hate humans, or just certain humans, or that some of the characters in the program - a mobster perhaps - have taken on a life of their own. What is the cause?

The majority of the book is Jacob and his fellow engineers trying to track down the problem and fix it, a quest that leads them to some surprising places. Against this backdrop we see some of the complicated mission aspects of the fleet on its way to the final destination and some of the trials and tribulations of Jacob in his personal life, his up and down relationship to his new wife. Though perhaps necessary parts of Jacob's story, as his life didn't occur only in a vacuum, focused only on the machine, sometimes they were a bit distracting (particularly the relationship aspects).

The ending of the book, the answer to the mystery, was intriguing though a bit abrupt. Questions are answered though and it was an interesting ending.

Overall I liked the book, it was a very fast read and I really liked the amount of historical detail that Haldeman packed into the various forays into various virtual reality trips, describing places and events from the 20th century.

2009-03-28 (Madison, AL United States) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 4

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Camouflage

Product Details

• ISBN13: 9780441012527
• Notes: BUY WITH Self-confidence, Over one million books sold! 98% Positive feedback. Compare our books, prices and military talents to the competition. 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed
• Modify: New

Description

Two aliens have wandered Earth for centuries. The Changeling has survived by adapting the forms of many different organisms. The Chameleon destroys anything or anyone that threatens it.

Now, a sunken relic that holds the key to their origins calls to them to take them home--but the Chameleon has decided there's only room for one.

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Customer Reviews

Hiding in plain sight - no spoilers
"Camouflage", a short, self-contained SF novel by Joe Haldeman, is a perfect example of why he is held in such high esteem by SF critics and fans alike. It's great! 4.5 stars.

At just 289 pages, Camouflage is a model of compact writing and plotting. While lacking Haldeman's trademark humor, the writing is still snappy and the dialogue believable. The main characters are fleshed out enough to make one care about them, and the plot "mysteries" stay hidden until literally the last few pages when all is revealed. No red herrings, all was there to figure out if one was paying attention. When I had only 10 pages to go, I was thinking that there was no way that Haldeman was going to be able to resolve everything fairly and to my satisfaction. I thought that I was either going to find out that this was "to be continued" although I was pretty sure that I had not seen any sequels in Haldeman's bibliography or else the ending was going to be lame. Neither was true.

This is a unique first contact story and a very skilled and original description of totally alien psychology interacting with various human intellectual and emotional behaviors. A lightning fast and excellent read.

J.M. Tepper

2010-08-26 (Boonton Township, NJ United States) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 4

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Fun to read. A page turner, but not Nebula award material
My title says most of what I have to say. You can read this book quickly and enjoy it. It moves fast and is fun, but I don't understand how this got the Nebula award. It doesn't compare with past winners like Dune, Flowers for Algernon, Left Hand of Darkness, Neuromancer. I just don't get it. Maybe nothing very impressive was written the year it got the award.

2010-08-15 | Tom Carr (Atlanta, Ga. USA) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 3

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Camouflage
One of the best books I've read in a long time. I couldn't put it down. Joe Haldeman is becoming one of my favorite authors and he delivers in this book.

2010-07-09 | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 4

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Good book.
This is the second Joe Haldeman book that I have read. It was good, and had the classic Haldeman abrupt ending. This author is very imaginative, and I appreciate his ability to bounce back and forth between the past and future. Overall a good read!

2010-05-11 | GreenScribe (Southern California) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 5

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Tight entertaining prose, with some weak character and plot elements.
Camouflage was tight and fun to read. Haldeman's high concept approach and the book's corresponding structure are very strong. (Thank you for not writing another 500 page space opera, just because!) Those strengths kept me reading despite some rather obvious weak plot points and a couple of flat characters.

It's worth noting that the weak plot points didn't bother me until I was well done with the book.

What bothered me more was how little attention Haldeman put into making the Chameleon richer. There was a little too much of the Generic Alien Baddie with only a cursory attempt at motivation. If he'd done half as well with Chameleon as he did with Changeling, it would have been a much stronger and more memorable book.

I loved Haldeman's diction and crisp witty style. The prose was sleek, and even with my quarrels it kept me reading in a pretty obsessive way until it was finished.

Haldeman has been a bit of a blank spot for me-- one of those authors I've been meaning to read, but never quite got around to doing it. Based on this, I'm a lot more enthusiastic to give more of his work a try.

I will admit to being puzzled as to why this won a Tiptree. I don't think he's doing anything that interesting with gender. Different strokes, I guess.

2010-04-24 | frumiousb (Amsterdam, the Netherlands) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 4

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Marsbound

Description

A novel of the red planet from the Hugo and Nebula Award–winning author of The Accidental Time Machine and Old Twentieth.

Young Carmen Dula and her family are about to embark on the adventure of a lifetime—they’re going to Mars.

Once on the Red Planet, however, Carmen realizes things are not so different from Earth. There are chores to do, lessons to learn, and oppressive authority figures to rebel against. And when she ventures out into the bleak Mars landscape alone one night, a simple accident leads her to the edge of death until she is saved by an angel—an angel with too many arms and legs, a head that looks like a potato gone bad, and a message for the newly arrived human inhabitants of Mars:

We were here first.

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Customer Reviews

Mars with a Touch of Heinlein
I just finished reading this book on my Droid phone, which is equipped with the Kindle app. I have a hard cover copy of the book, but by virtue of it being on my phone I was able to hit this book when pulling out a hard cover might have been prohibitive such as when on the checkout line or on the subway.

The plot made me feel that Joe Haldeman was channeling a bit of the old Heinlein magic: strong female character, bratty brother, smart parents, all bound for a family trip to Mars. Indeed, Carmen, the daughter would have been at home either in Haldeman's own works (such as his under praised "Worlds" trilogy) or a Heinlein novel. The story involves an "outpost" on Mars and man's first contact with intelligent non-human life.

My only main criticism is in the development of some of the characters; such as the antagonistic colony administrator; which are not fleshed out as fully as I would have liked (a great villain usually needs some sort of great back story). The ending, with no spoilers needed, left me happy, in the past I have sometimes felt Haldeman's endings are a bit too abrupt, but this one had that gentle touch of humor that makes me went to read the next book in the series.

Lastly one minor quibble, the formatting, at least on my Droid/Kindle, had words fused together in several spots, I don't know if it is native to the Kindle formatting of this book, or just the way it is presented on my Droid phone or not; but this should not take away from a fine old school science fiction yarn.

2010-08-16 (Brooklyn, NY USA) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 5

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Sounds like a good read but...
I'm sorry, I have a hard time purchasing an eBook for more than the hardcover sells for. While the reviews for the book sound intriguing, fortunately there is a huge selection of excellent SciFi eBooks that are *not* overpriced to choose from. I think I'll go buy one of those instead.

2010-06-21 (Duvall, WA USA) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 2

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thought I found an old Heinlein novel!
Hard to believe that this is the same person that gave us the Forever War. This novel has the feel of the Dean of Science Fiction, Robert A. Heinlein. If that was the feel Mr. Haldeman was going for he exceeded and then some. I can narrow this story down to three words: A Fun Read.

2010-06-13 | Allan (Osan Air Base, Korea) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 5

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Incredibly Tedious and Disappointing...
The character and narrative development is so anemic that it makes having any patience for the story to work itself out tortuous, combined with page after page of numbing descriptions of the various modes of human travel and habitation (which to be fair, seem fairly real and conceivable for the near future) and I'm not even sure Haldeman actually is capable of writing something this bad and am suspicious that he's been perhaps possessed by a teenage martian who used his name to get published. I was going to say this might work for a YA female protagonist reader, but even then I think most YA females are going to need much more character development and deeper ad more (MUCH)complex emotional story.

This book feels like tedious and dry speculative research for another much better book and I hope that's the case.

2010-05-08 (Brooklyn, NY USA) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 2

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Poor Heinlein Remake
A very weak attempt at a juvenile Heinlein novel - think of Red Planet. Lots of old ideas from other writers combined into very predictable technology and shallow characters. This reads like an old, bad Star Trek episode. The sequel Starbound is even weaker. These books leave you with the single thought "why did I waste my time on this?".

2010-05-04 | Father of English Phd (Newport) | Helpful Votes: 2 | Rating: 1

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The Accidental Time Machine

Product Details

• ISBN13: 9780441016167
• Mould: New
• Notes: BUY WITH Poise, Over one million books sold! 98% Positive feedback. Compare our books, prices and overhaul to the competition. 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed

Description

NOW IN PAPERBACK-FROM THE AUTHOR OF MARSBOUND

Grad- school dropout Matt Fuller is toiling as a lowly research assistant at MIT when he inadvertently creates a time machine. With a dead-end job and a girlfriend who left him for another man, Matt has nothing to lose in taking a time-machine trip himself—or so he thinks.

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Customer Reviews

Great Time Travel Tale
I love science fiction stories and I am most interested in time travel stories. I think that the theory of time travel is one of the most fascinating theories in the world. I have read and re-read The Accidental Time Machine and I think that it is by far the best time travel story I have ever read. Thank you Joe Haldeman. "Keep em comin".

2010-08-24 | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 5

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I wonder if the book was even written by Joe Haldeman
I wonder if the book was even written by Joe Haldeman. Sorry Joe but I can not even say that the book was worth the time I gave it. I wish I had a time machine to go back and get the time I wasted reading this book. Yet I would recommend anyone read Joe Haldeman.

I don't need all the ends tied up, but to introduce a character like future Matt in the being of the book and never discover or even meet him was wrong.

The key to any book is whither you like the character? Matt made no sense to me. He never questions who put up the Million Dollars bond money or where the number 1,000,000.00 came from and just assumes it was a future Matt? He does not question the note to get in the car and jump again. I don't understand what his reasons where for jumping except that he assumes future Matt was the person that jumped back and put up the money as well as left him the note to jump. Yet we never does find out which future Matt did tell our story Matt that he needs to jump. Even the reason Matt does jumped again is not clear except to think that he has to in order for him to be the future Matt which comes back and saves him. Which again is strange because our Matt doesn't seem to be in any real danger to speak of except that the note tells him to do it. It just had lots and lots of unanswered questions, which would have been great if there had been a second book. We are lead to believe our Matt will one day be the future Matt that does figures out reverse time travel and does puts up one Million for a cash bond and write the note telling past Matt to go find the car and time jump. But it never happens? The character's actions just never made any sense to me. Do we just assume that future Matt that jumped back in time just want ahead and jumped forward after he gave past Matt the money? Did it not ever occur to him that future Matt the rich Matt wanted him to jump so that future Matt can stick around and avoid the Paradox of having two Matts in the same time plane?

Unfortunately we find that a look alike Jesus Christ is all behind it. Which is some how connected to out Matt, because should Matt our Matt not exist than our look alike JC and other will not exist. If you make any sense out of this book please email me.

Since we never did met the future Matt that did jump back and started our Matt on his journey in the end the book made no sense.

Sorry, but I do recommend you read any other of Joe Haldeman's other books.

2010-07-14 (Voorhees, NJ United States) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 2

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Traveling into an increasingly alien future
Matthew Fuller is a research assistant at MIT, working too many hours without enough sleep. One day, while building a calibrator to measure quantum effects, his machine disappears. Almost before he fully comprehends it, the machine reappears. The next time it happens, it is gone for a dozen seconds. Eventually he figures out that his machine is traveling through time. When he tries to use it to transport himself, he arrives several weeks in the future, wanted by the police for grand theft and murder. In order to save his skin, he jumps ahead again. Eventually, he ends up far, far in the future, beyond the lives of anyone he knew. Can he find a new home, or possibly a way back to his own time?

The future worlds described here are interesting extrapolations of human behavior and technology, but are increasingly unrecognizable to anything within our realm of experience. Haldeman's time travel certainly seems credible, and his futures present unique challenges for his characters as the leap ever further from their own times. An entertaining story, with plenty of philosophical meat to chew on.

2010-07-01 | ResQgeek (Alexandria, VA USA) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 4

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A Little Fluffy, Quixotic Ending Saved It
Being from the Boston area I liked the setting straight away. While the novel moves along at a nice pace this isn't diamond hard sci-fi, more like peanut-brittle sci-fi. JH can spin a yarn and "as time goes by" (pun intended) there is adequate character development with marginal plot twists to keep one's interest. My strongest positive is that the book did get my own imagination going. I bought this as a discount hardcover. Recommended for your Kindle/iPhone/iPad commute reading. I read this in three rides, to and from work.

2010-04-26 (Brookline, MA USA) | Helpful Votes: 1 | Rating: 3

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Time machine... check. Go into the future... check. Have difficulties... check!
J. Haldeman's book, The Accidental Time Machine, has a uniqueness based on its innocence. ABD MIT student Matt Fuller accidentally constructs a time machine. Who knows how or why? What Matt learns is that every time he pushes the "on" button, it disappears, and then reappears in an ever increasing time in the future. Matt learns how to travel with the machine, but the future, or parts of it, are bleak and troublesome. It'll take some time for him to realize that he needs to go far enough INTO the future to find the time when scientists have figured out how to go BACK in time, and send him home.

Will it work?

An entertaining sci-fi story by one of the masters.

2010-02-15 (Honolulu, HI USA) | Helpful Votes: 1 | Rating: 4

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The Forever War

Product Details

• Quarters: New
• ISBN13: 9780312536633
• Notes: BUY WITH Courage, Over one million books sold! 98% Positive feedback. Compare our books, prices and repair to the competition. 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed

Description

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In the 1970s Joe Haldeman approached more than a dozen different publishers before he finally found one interested in The Forever War. The book went on to win both the Hugo and Nebula Awards, although a large chunk of the story had been cut out before it saw publication. Now Haldeman and Avon Books have released the definitive version of The Forever War, published for the first time as Haldeman originally intended. The book tells the timeless story of war, in this case a conflict between humanity and the alien Taurans. Humans first bumped heads with the Taurans when we began using collapsars to travel the stars. Although the collapsars provide nearly instantaneous travel across vast distances, the relativistic speeds associated with the process means that time passes slower for those aboard ship. For William Mandella, a physics student drafted as a soldier, that means more than 27 years will have passed between his first encounter with the Taurans and his homecoming, though he himself will have aged only a year. When Mandella finds that he can't adjust to Earth after being gone so long from home, he reenlists, only to find himself shuttled endlessly from battle to battle as the centuries pass. --Craig E. Engler

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Customer Reviews

Maybe It's Me
The Forever War is about a soldier, drafted to fight in a war against an alien enemy. Since the war is being fought light years from earth, and since he is shipped out and returned to earth or other bases repeatedly and at relativistic speeds, his subjective time becomes seriously compressed relative to the passage of time on earth. With each return to earth or to a base, he is growingly out of touch with earth culture.

The metaphor is the VietNam War experience for US soldiers in the 60s and 70s, and the author, Joe Haldeman, was a VietNam Vet.

So far, so good, and interesting. And I did get into the book -- it was a fast, engaging read. But I don't think, beyond the mere fact of the VietNam metaphor, I am going to be thinking about this book a month from now. Haldeman's character is thin -- I don't feel like I knew him that well -- and, I suspect as a consequence, the disorientations he experiences just weren't that deep or detailed for me.

I understand there is a movie in the making. I'd see the movie, now that I've read the book. A good director might make something more of the book than my experience in reading it (the movie, for me at least, could actually be better than the book!).

The book won numerous awards for science fiction, so maybe others saw something I didn't.

2010-08-22 | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 3

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Forever Recommended
Amazing book. Couldn't put it down! I got it on a Thursday and it was finished by Sunday. As you read it you'll think it's a fairly basic story, but after it's over and you sit and think about it you'll realize the depth and ingenious of the story. It's simply brilliant, I don't want to spoil any of the story but believe me it's worth a read. It's not terribly long so even if you're on the fence just get it, it's not going to kill you to read it.

I'd recommend it to anyone who likes war/sci-fi/good stories.

2010-08-19 (California) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 5

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Takes Forever To Read
The Forever War by Joe Haldeman.

Life's too short to read this book. I am puzzled by it's winning awards and garnering great reviews. I admit, I'm not usually fond of dystopias in the first place but I am very interested in sci fi, millitary fiction and I even appreciate a bit of sexiness in books. All of which The Forever War has.

It's just that the author doesn't write any of it all that well or compelling. There's a war theme. Even a rather interesting idea of space travel warping time such that a soldier engaged in interstellar war suffers such time dilation that every time he returns "home" to earth, it's a different and alien place. Yes, that's a cool idea and plot device. However, the war story sections fall flat. The battle scenes are not compelling. The camaraderie scenes do not bond you with the main character. He's nothing like the story teller of Orson Scott Card, Eric Flint or David Weber.

The different dystopias of earth are interesting ideas -- but not told in very compelling ways.

The aliens -- they were not brought to life in any meaningful way.

The horror of war was there -- but not told in any way that would move you.

Sex -- plenty of talk about sex -- none of it actually sexy. He goes from complete sexual promiscuity where the female soldiers are required to have sex with any and every male soldier....to complete homosexuality where everyone is gay but the archaic "from the past" main character. Kind of an interesting idea...perhaps people in the 70's found it shocking...but it's not compellingly told from my current vantage point.

There's a love story theme throughout -- but again, it's simply not told well. You don't fall in love with the main character's love of each other.

I'd love to see what a David Weber or John Ringo could have done with Halderman's ideas. He had some truly interesting ideas and plot lines. But I had to force myself to finish the book. I had read half of it before starting on the five book Alvin Maker series by OSC. I read the first of those with my youngest daughter and was simply compelled to devour the next and the next. Not so with The Forever War. There are just so many other really great books that take up the themes and plot devices of this book to bother reading it.

It wasn't the worst book I've ever read. It isn't even a BAD book. There are definitely interesting thoughts and points. It's just not a very well told story.

Lee

2010-07-03 | leebase (Chicago, IL USA) | Helpful Votes: 5 | Rating: 2

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Absolute classic
It's already been said, so I'll keep it short. This is a classic sci-fi war story with a totally different perspective than most war novels. It is an absolute must read!

2010-06-12 (Imlay City, MI United States) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 5

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War Weary, Top 10 Greatest Sci-Fi Books
William goes to the stars a warrior and returns to a world changed beyond recognition. Everyone he ever loved is long gone and is own humanity altered beyond recognition.


Haldeman has written one of the most thought provoking books I've ever read. He literally puts you in the shoes of a weary warrior learning the hard lessons of war. Bitter sweet but an awesome read.

2010-06-12 (Satellite Beach, FL United States) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 5

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Dealing in Futures

Description

This collection contains eleven of the author's finest stories, ranging from faraway planets beyond human comprehension to a nightmare future Earth. By the author of The Forever War.

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Customer Reviews

Far from his best
Haldeman is strongest in his novels and his non-fictional essays, and in the occasional shorter story that really Hits It. The stories in this volume aren't the ones that really Hit It. They're perfectly passable, but not much more than that.

The two novelettes are too long for the ideas they contain (or in some sense too short; "You Can Never Go Back" is more powerful embedded within "The Forever War" than it is on its own here), and the short stories are nothing to write home about. The poetry would probably not have been published if it hadn't had Haldeman's name on it, and his description of how he came to write it is much more interesting and evocative than the verses themselves. (Caveat: I have a very high bar for poetry for some reason; maybe you'll love these, I dunno.)

In general the mini-essays between the stories are the best part of this book, but they're such a small part that they aren't enough to redeem it from the category of the relatively uninteresting. If you read it you probably won't regret it afterwards, but there are better things (many by the same author) to spend your time on.

2008-02-11 (Mohegan Lake, NY USA) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 3

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One of the best SF Short story collections I've ever read
Joe Haldeman is one of those treasures you stumble upon... Wow, I wish he 1/4 as prolific as Asimov because I've already run out of his writings to read. This is a fantastic book.

2005-08-17 | http://Scott-Paterson.com (MENLO PARK, CA USA) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 5

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You will not put it down.
Firstly I will admit my bias, Mr Haldeman is gifted, his best book is beyond my ability to describe accurately enough to do it justice, and his worst book is fantastic. He never fails to entertain and has again with every story in this book. Do yourself a big favour, buy this and all of Mr Haldeman's work, you will not be disappointed.

Ian

2002-01-25 (Melbourne, Australia) | Helpful Votes: 2 | Rating: 5

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First Rate Short Story Collection
Joe Haldeman is an excellent short story writer, as he proves in "Dealing in Futures." The book opens with the chilling novella "Seasons," about an outer space anthropological study gone horribly wrong. Another lengthy item is "You Can Never Go Back," which was originally intended to be the middle portion of Haldeman's best novel "The Forever War," and was actually included in later versions of that book. The best of the shorter stories include "More Than the Sum of His Parts," a graphic outer space horror story, the humorous "A !Tangled Web," an excellent historical story "Manifest Destiny," as well as several poems by the author. This work is nearly as good as Stephen King's short story collections. Any sci-fi fan or lover of a good tale should enjoy it.

2001-10-18 (Oakton, VA) | Helpful Votes: 4 | Rating: 5

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Worth Reading Even Though Some Stories Are Minor
Haldeman's second short story collection has not only science fiction but also horror, poetry, and Haldeman's only sword-and-sorcery tale.

It starts off strong with two stories set in Haldeman's Confederacion universe, most notably used in his novel ALL MY SINS REMEMBERED. A team of anthropologists are unpleasantly surprised when their seemingly peaceful alien subjects become murderous. Haldeman constructs a grim, suspenseful story from the first person narratives of people fleeing for their lives across an alien world. Much less serious is "A !Tangled Web" about linguistic and cultural confusions during a trade negotiation with aliens. These aliens have an elaborate and hilarious repertoire of self-deprecating phrases.

Haldeman's prose often has wit and irony in even his most serious novels but that aspect of his work really livens up "Seven and the Stars" despite its worn plot of a science fiction writer meeting a real alien.

Horror of the traditional and supernatural sort is featured in "Manifest Destiny", an interesting tale mostly set in Mexico during the Mexican-American War, and "Lindsay and the Red City Cross". The latter is set in the unpleasant, sinister bazaar of Djemaa El Fna in Marrakesh. The story was inspired by an unpleasant trip Haldeman took to Morocco though his luck there was obviously better than his protagonist.

Though inspired by Poe and, in a roundabout way Daniel Keyes' classic "Flowers for Algernon, "More Than the Sum of His Parts" is high-tech, rather than traditional, horror. The narrator's body is mostly replaced with cybernetic substitutes which help him realize his egomaniac and increasingly lethal fantasies. Haldeman's alternate title, "Tom Swift and His Electric Penis" should give you some idea where this story goes. It's one of the high points of the collection.

Pastiches of other genres show up twice. "Blood Sisters" is a Mickey Spillane type story with the Mafia and clones and, of course, lots of sex and gunplay. "Blood Brothers" is Haldeman's sole entry into the sword-and-sorcery field. Written for Robert Asprin's Thieve's World universe, it's a minor story about a villainous tavern owner.

For Haldeman fans, the most interesting story will probably be "You Can Never Go Back". It's Haldeman's first draft of the story that eventually became the Sergeant Mandella section of his most celebrated work, THE FOREVER WAR. It's not only longer than the novel version but features a violent, more depressing America and different family details for Mandella and Potter. Haldeman likes this version better though he admits that it would have slowed the novel down too much.

Unfortunately, the last two stories in the collection are minor. "No Future in It" is a gimmicky alternate history/time travel story which leaves out the meat of an alternate history story: why things changed. "The Pilot" is about a cyborg starship that gets really annoyed with tv interviewers.

As with his most recent short story collection, NONE SO BLIND, Haldeman finishes the book off with some of his accomplished verse, here three science fiction story poems. Each entry in the collection features an introduction and afterword by Haldeman explaining the origins and inspirations of the stories.

2000-09-18 (St. Paul, MN USA) | Helpful Votes: 3 | Rating: 4

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