Customer Reviews

Forever Free

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(20)
2 star:		(18)
1 star:		(30)

 

 

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.

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.

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

I saw the book yesterday lunch-time at Sydney airport terminal and had a few hours to fill in. The Forever War is one of my very favourite hard sf books and I couldn,t believe my good fortune in spotting the sequel.

ITS AWFUL. Starts off well then descends into soft fairy-tale fantasy. I can't describe how disappointing the book is. I read it straight through in four hours. It really came apart for me when the Time Warp strange events started and was all downhill from there.

What about the unnatural origin of MF and its biosphere? Just mentioned and left. What about the derelict civilisation found by the Taurans? Just mentioned and left. What relevance have the Omnis? Go figure.

Joe, how could you do this?

I read The Forever War a few months back, and I loved it. I wondered why I hadn't ever gotten around to reading it before. Then I read Forever Peace and really, really liked it. Not quite 5 stars, but almost. Then when Forever Free came available in paperback, I saw all the negative reviews, and I thought, "Aw, come on! Must be a bunch of Haldeman haters!" So I ordered it, and I read it.

Ugh.

Trust me, the reviewers are right: This is one to avoid. I remember how, when the movie Star Trek 5 came out, my friends and I went to watch it, and afterwards, depressed, we said, "You know, I'm just going to pretend that one never happened." That's the way I feel about Forever Free. (And its plot is remarkably similar to Star Trek 5, too.) It felt like Haldeman just wasn't trying. Joe, if you read this: I'm not enraged, I'm just disappointed. Really disappointed. You can do better than that.

In "The Forever War," William Mandella tells the story of a 1960's flower child that grew up to find himself a soldier in an interstellar war waged by Earth against the mysterious Taurans. Because of the time-dilation effects of collapsar travel at near-light speed, Mandella returns repeatedly to an Earth that becomes stranger with each visit. His Earthbound friends and family grow old and die, and as the war stretches into a thousand years, it's his own fellow humans that become the aliens. Mandella's fellow veterans are a confusing mix of soldiers from many centuries -- some of them speaking in a language he can hardly understand. Mandella, with his roots in the 20th century, is one of the oldest of them all. At the time "Forever War" was published in 1974, the book's flat combat-laden narrative echoed Heinlen's "Starship Troopers" and reflected the alienation Haldeman must have felt when he returned from his own Vietnam experiences. This brilliant book won a Nebula award, and over the years I have read it many times, trying to understand how Haldeman's writing so effortlessly captured a purity of character and action. The book was followed by a Nebula award-winning sequel -- "Forever Peace." Twenty-five years after publishing "The Forever War," Haldeman has finally concluded the trilogy with the fascinating "Forever Free." Mandella is now in his 50's, retired with his wife and two nearly-grown children on a remote planet settlement where he and his fellow veterans from the 1000-year war can live out their remaining years. Both Taurans and "Man" have been united into a "Group Mind" where individuals exchange memories every day, and human individuality has become an anachronism. Mandella and his fellow veterans are being preserved as a kind of experiment by the group mind -- an experiment that backfires when Mandella and his wife Marygay organize their fellow veterans and abduct an ancient collapsar starship with the plan of escaping by jumping another 40,000 years into the future. The last half of the book takes a rather bizarre turn toward the metaphysical, but the action never stumbles, and it was 4:30 AM before I read the last page. Haldeman's vivid and thoughtful handing of his characters, emotion, and science concepts shows science fiction at its very best and puts him near the top rank of living science fiction writers. My recommendation -- don't read this book. Read the whole trilogy from scratch -- and don't miss another frequently overlooked Haldeman favorite of mine -- "Mind Bridge."

--Auralgo

It is great to see familiar characters from a truly engaging story. Having Marygay and William back, twenty years later "subjective time," well, there's a lot that can be done with that.

And Haldeman really appears to enjoy doing it, telling the story of how arriving into this bizarre descendant-of-man culture has affected these people.

But then, suddenly, 90% of the way through the book, it seems Haldeman lost his interest and just decided, okay, it's time to end this story and wham! Out of nowhere comes a hard and fast deus ex machina ending. Seriously deus ex machina. Like, the epitome of deus ex machina.

It was so disappointing. However, the ride getting there was so much fun. If you just don't bother to read the resolution it would be a 5.

First off let me state that I am a great fan of the Forever War and when I saw the Forever free I leaped at it. Unfortunatly, as life goes to show, sequels are not all that they are cracked up to be.

The first three-forths of the book were actually pretty good (as far as build up goes). But the rest of the book was PURE DISJOINTED LET DOWN. It is like Joe wrote himself in a corner and said "lets introduce this race of beings that have been studying the Taurans and Humans for the last 10000 year" but realized that was not enough to explain some of the events he wrote earlier and said "Well then lets introduce God" and at this point it gets very bad.

Though after reading the last quarter of the book I can see where Stephen King thought highly of it.

Man, I didn't think it would ever happen! I read the FOREVER WAR in the late 70's, and instantly wanted to know what happened to the main characters after the war was over. I have since read everything Haldeman has written, but my favorite character was always William Mandella.

Needless to say I pre-ordered the minute I saw the book on Amazon!

Well you can read the stuff above for the plot. Let me just say the book lives up to the legend. FOREVER WAR is still my favorite Haldeman, but FOREVER FREE is now #2. The story is great and the ending is wild. It reminded me a bit of THERE IS NO DARKNESS and ALL MY SINS REMEMBERED.

I can't tell you how much I miss good sci-fi like this! Haldeman and Brin are incredible, but they can only write so much, and Isaac Asimov had to go and die (the nerve of the guy!).

All I can say is: great job Joe! Another classic! Now don't slack off and go write a series of mysteries set in the ALL MY SINS REMEMBERED universe! (I'm begging here.)

Don't let it slow down the Forever War movie too much though. (A guy can hope can't he?)

The story picks up a while after the end of Forever War. The characters are now firmly entrenched in a dead end life and want out.

The first third of the story is them getting out. The second third of the story is what the encounter on the way. The last third of the story is, well, you'll have to judge for yourself, but I was quite surprised at by the ending. The main characters are shown that not only is everything they've ever known wrong, but that the person who has been running the show all along doesn't really understand what's going on, either. In one sense, this can be thought of as a metaphor for what an author might experience when a story takes on a life of its own and does things that are beyond simple writing controls.

Honestly, it gave me the feeling the author has more in mind, as the book's ending didn't really feel like an ending so much as an epiphany.

The Forever War was, really, an astounding novel. Forever Free may, as time passes, be seen in the same light.