Customer Reviews

ALL MY SINS REMEMBERED (ORBIT BOOKS)

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Joe Haldeman has compelled me to write my first (and perhaps only) Amazon.com book review.

I picked up the author's preferred edition of "The Forever War" at a used bookstore earlier this year. I wasn't familiar with Haldeman or his work; it just looked like an interesting read. By page 20, I was enthralled by his edgy writing style and wonderfully unique storytelling. The book was outstanding.

Fast forward a few months as I gradually went through "Forever Free" and "Forever Peace," reading each with increasing unease and a lingering sense of disappointment. "Free" was a hackneyed sequel to "War"; "Peace," while a decent read, just didn't have the magic that made "The Forever War" such an utterly compelling story to me.

By then I'd pretty much chalked Haldeman up as a one hit wonder. But one last fluky purchase of a dog-eared, faded, tattered copy of "All My Sins Remembered" for 50 cents at a half-off half sale marked the best buy I've made in 20 years.

I won't go into the plot particulars, but suffice it to say that Haldeman's Vietnam experience laces nearly every word in this unusual story of interstellar espionage. He published the book in 1977 and it's clear when comparing this story with his later work that nerves exposed and rubbed raw during his military service were still itching him when he penned this novel.

The central question of the story is this: Can a fundamentally decent man programmed to spend his life committing atrocities survive when his service is done and the killing stops? The theme parallels the nearly impossible adjustment many Vietnam ground combat veterans faced upon returning home. Like lead protagonist Otto McGavin here and William Mandella in "The Forever War," U.S. veterans found reintegrating themselves into polite society after living in a bloodbath for months or years a task for which the human psyche is ill-equipped to deal.

Haldeman also explores the underlying theme of duty in this context. To what degree should an enlisted man accept government rhetoric that the lives he's taking are for the good of the whole? As the story progresses through the years and McGavin's body toll rises, he finds himself questioning his profession and his assignments more and more. Will assassinating a low-life scum on a remote planet really ensure interstellar peace, or are missions like this simply political justifications to keep the money flowing in and higher-ups working? Is the Confederación truly interested in harmony among its member planets, or is its primary goal instead propping itself up at any cost? Again, themes such as these are pulled straight out of Vietnam, and Haldeman updates and presents them to be as topically pertinent in the unknown future as they were 30 years ago in the United States.

I enjoy science fiction. Like any genre, you take the bad with the good, and for me at least I've run across a great deal more formulaic laser-toting drivel than deftly woven stories that explore fundamental human (or even nonhuman) issues that strike to the bone. Clarke, Heinlein, Azimov, Niven, and Pournelle are a few of the modern greats who dig far below the glittery surface of starships and little green men to expose the true depths and wonder of good science fiction.

Add Joe Haldeman and "All My Sins Remembered" to the list. He's not as consistently good from novel to novel as the acknowledged masters, but when he's on, he's as good or better than any of them. "The Forever War" is brilliant and deserving of the Hugo and Nebula it won, but "Sins" is even better. It's extraordinary science fiction. My only regret is that the yellowing 23-year-old paperback I own will surely disintegrate long before I can properly introduce it to my young one...END

Okay, I know FOREVER WAR is supposed to be THE Joe Haldeman book, but I have to tell you: ALL MY SINS REMEMBERED is the ONE. I picked up the Forever War (my first Haldeman) a few months ago after reading all the great reviews, and I did think it was a really good book. Good enough to get me searching around the used books stores for some other stuff. Mindbridge was good too, but AMSR blew me away. I've read it twice, and as soon as my room mate gives it back, I will read it again. I am a one man AMSR preacher at Stanford, so if you find me waving this book in your face just give up and read it! I want it re-published! I want to get a nice new copy!

This is the third book by Joe Heldeman that I've read. All three have been excellent. The first two were "The Forever War" and "Tool of the Trade". His writing style is always simple and direct , and he shows a healthy mistrust of the government. I would recommend this book to anyone if you can get your hands on a copy. I found mine at at a used bookstore in my area.

I've read AMSR about five times now. I would say it's my favourite Haldeman book. The story revolves around a future mercenary/secret agent and the near-suicidal missions on which he's sent. The twist here is that the aganet is programmed Joe 90 style, actually assuming the personality necessary to achieve his mission.

This may sound like pretty gung-ho space opera so far and indeed it would be, in the hands of a lesser writer. But Haldeman's genius weaves a complex, moving SF passion play which leads the reader to question nearly every tenet of their own morality. Does the freedom of those of us in the Western world depend upon shadowy atrocities carried out by operatives similar to Haldeman's protagonist? I urge you to buy, beg, borrow or steal this book. It's a *great* story, in all senses of the word. And like all the best SF, it leaves you with more questions than answers.

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.

I am amazed this book isn't in print. Every Sci Fi fan I meet has read it and loved it! This thing is a frigin classic! A great thriller with a wry sense of humor.

Man bring it back!

I mean look at all these reviews! The book has been out of print for 20 years! I think that says something about how much it sticks with people right there.

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)

For those who have read Haldeman's most noted novel, 'The Forever War', you must also read All My Sins Remembered. A truly riveting book which almost predicates TV shows like 'Quantum Leap' or 'The Pretender'. If you can find a copy of this book, and you have enjoyed other Haldeman novels, buy this one. It is great sci-fi.

Wow, I just can't believe this. A friend gave me me FOREVER WAR and THERE IS NO DARKNESS and they blew my socks off. I get on Amazon to try out one of Haldeman's newer books but I see this old out of print book that has awesome reviews. I figure out that it hasn't been in print for like 20 years.

What gives?

Okay so I am curious and I can't find it in any used book store so I order it. Holy %&@!*#$ who let this book go out of print!!!! I ended up reading it in one sitting. Hey it gets my five stars. Now I want to see the movie.

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)