Forever Free [Paperback]

Joe Haldeman (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Victor Gollancz (1999)
• ISBN-10: 1857989317
• ISBN-13: 978-1857989311
• ASIN: B002LMDOT4
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (95 customer reviews)

More About the Author

Joe Haldeman has served twice as president of the Science Fiction Writers of America and is currently an adjunct professor teaching writing at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

32 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Terribly disappointing, January 19, 2000

By 

"bmills100" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Forever Free (Hardcover)

Up until this point, I've liked every Haldeman story I've ever read. I don't like to give negative reviews as a rule, but this one is such a disappointment I think it would be a service to warn anyone else who likes Haldeman's normally first-rate writing. The first half of this book is an involving and well-told story, but then ideas just sort of come at you from out of left field, and the book takes off in weird and unsatisfying directions. It's as if there are pieces of three unrelated stories squeezed awkwardly into one book, and none of them are developed completely. This is not a sequel to the classic Forever War, except in so far as it (quite unnecessarily) includes some of the same characters. But even worse, Forever Free's reinterpretation of reality undermines the meaning of Forever War's powerful statements on humanity and war. Not only is this book bad in itself, it will taint your affection for its splendid predecessor. If you like Haldeman and love the classic Forever War, do yourself a favor and skip this one.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars An Unbalanced Novel, September 19, 2000

By 

Randy Stafford (St. Paul, MN USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Forever Free (Hardcover)

It's been twenty-some years since the last survivors of the Forever War set up home on Middle Finger which serves as sort of a genetic preserve run by the smug and superior clone groupmind known as Man. William Mandella, wife Marygay, and many of the other old veterans are getting tired of their relatively primitive life on that planet. And they find Man disconcertingly alien and fear that the clones will someday decide to rid themselves of their inferiors. They hatch a plan to fly a starship fast enough to take advantage of relativistic effects and return to Middle Finger 40,000 years in its future. A future where they hope Man will be absent or have evolved to the point of leaving them alone.

Tauran representatives and Man put obstacles in their way, but old human cunning wins out, and they embark for the future. But things are just getting under way when very odd things began to happen. Antimatter begins inexplicably disappearing from their ship. And even odder things have happened to the people back on Middle Finger and Earth . . .

Haldeman can't be faulted for not wanting to make this sequel to The Forever War (Vintage) a war story. Instead, he gives us a mystery story. Unfortunately, the novel is unbalanced by the payoff he gives us at the end. It's too glib, too metaphysical to justify the length of the story before it nor is the idea that new. On the other hand, Haldeman could have explored the consequences of his solution more fully which would have lead to a better and longer novel.

The novel opens with a poem about men assuming the powers of gods to bring about peace. Haldeman doesn't really develop that theme much or make any coherent thematic statements about war and violence and freedom as I hoped he would.

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Gets off to a great start, February 20, 2006

By 

wiredweird "wiredweird" (Earth, or somewhere nearby) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Forever Free (Paperback)

Haldeman sets this book in the world of his "The Forever War," one of the landmark stories in modern science fiction. This book follows some of the forever warriors into their retirement, a thousand years from their home era. In that thousand years, even their own species has become alien to them. Although their community includes some good-sized towns and villages, they are isolated like no human ever was since the species began.

Since their isolation can't really get worse, the veterans decide to take a one-way trip through time. They'll ride relativistic dilation thousands of years into the future, to see what becomes of humankind. This creates a powerful start to a story that could have been as good as the book that it follows.

I found the story coming apart at the seams, though, just when it should have been working towards its crescendo. Bizarre events start to occur, ending the trip prematurely. A new species pops up out of nowhere, followed by another new species popping up out of nowhere. Then everyone goes home. The end.

The last part of this book just didn't have the human believability that made "The Forever War" so memorable. Taken on its own, this is no better than middling good SF. As a sequel to a truly exceptional novel, I found this disappointing.

//wiredweird