Customer Reviews

Dealing in Futures

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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.

This is one of the best collections of short stories for the science fiction genre. If you liked Forever War, this one is a must read. The best things are the comments from the author at the end of each story. They add a flavor to it and you'll find yourself going back and reading it again with that added perspective.

I didn't enjoy this as much as None So Blind, but it's entertaining nonetheless. Haldeman has become one of my favorite authors not only because of his excellent novels (Forever War, 1968), but also his short stories. He makes reading a story or novella a pleasure due to his ability to present such vivid images without getting carried away. His characterization of aliens in the story "A !Tangled Web" is hilarious.

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

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.

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.