Customer Reviews

The Guardian

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

It is difficult to imagine that the author of this also wrote the Forever War. Though it has been over 25 years between the two. Nonetheless, the latter is exemplary hard military science fiction. But what about this book?

Its descriptions, told in the first person, of the late nineteenth century in the United States, are wonderfully done. They span the Civil War to the Alaskan gold rush. Reconstruction and the Gilded Age. But unlike say Jack Finney's "Time and Again", there is little intrigue here. Rather, we see society through the eyes of a single woman trying to raise her son. The constraints and norms it imposes on her seem so confining to us, but she describes them matter-of-factly, which deliberately adds to the dissonance that the author intends between the subject's experiences and ours.

Read this if you want some understanding of what it meant to be female and not wealthy or powerful in that United States.

Ah, but what about the SCIENCE fiction? A little sparse. Such as it is appears only in the last quarter or less of the book. The first three quarters is straight historical fiction, though within which, the subject keeps alluding to this mysterious thing. Slightly annoying. When it finally does happen, it is rather hokey. Bloody risible, actually. I found it unconvincing and simply not up to the author's standards in his earlier books.

This interestingly-offbeat sort-of-SF novel starts off as a late 19th century memoir, 'as written by' the protag-lady circa 1952. Rosa Coleman moves to Kansas to escape an abusive husband, then moves on to Alaska when the brute find out she's in Dodge City -- a town Haldeman picked, no doubt, with malice aforethought [note 1]. The 'memoir' is well-researched and pretty good, but has no special sfnal frisson until Rosa is led on a galactic fantasy-tour by an Alien Guardian disguised as a Tlingit Raven shaman... [note 2]

It wouldn't be fair to reveal how Raven got involved, so let's just say that many-worlds is the law in this universe, with interesting consequences. Haldeman's writing is as good as ever (a relief after Forever Peace), and the galactic-tourist scenes with Raven and Rosa are as thrilling and strange as the encounters with the weird continuity-guardian in The Hemingway Hoax [note 3] -- high praise indeed.

The spirit-guardian out-of-body trip leader was a pretty common conceit in 19th century proto-sf, and Haldeman specifically identifies a Flammarion novel [note 4] as a parallel work to his. A somewhat similar book, that ordinary readers may have actually read, is Lindsay's Voyage to Arcturus. Personally, I would have preferred more galaxy-touring and less history in Guardian, but I wasn't disappointed with the book at hand. And, at 231 pages, no great time-committment is required. Recommended.

I glanced through the online reviews for Guardian. About a third wanted more history and less SF. Another third wanted more SF, and the rest were happy with Haldeman's chosen mix. Um, Publisher's Review panned it as "odd and unsatisfying". So YMMV.
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Note 1). -- town of a thousand bad cliches. Yup, she got the hell out of Dodge...
Haldeman used to live nearby, in Oklahoma (and grew up in Alaska).

Note 2). Raven has roughly the same position in Northwest Coast mythology as Coyote does in the American Southwest, or Loki in Nordic myths.

Note 3). They also make more sense than those HH scenes.

Note 4). You won't be surprised to hear that John Clute has a copy of the Flammarion in his personal library. Ah, it's Lumen, newly-translated by one B. Stableford...

"Haldeman must be commended for his meticulous recreation of period America."
--Paul di Filippo, **CAUTION -- SPOILERS**
http://www.scifi.com/sfw/issue296/books.html

Review copyright 2002 Peter D. Tillman

Readers might anticipate a story of an encounter with alien powers from the description - and might be disappointed. In reality this is the story of Rosa, a woman who escapes an abusive husband and journeys across country with her child in post-Civil War days, to make a new life for herself. While the hints of encounters with a world-changing alien lie throughout the story line, it's only in the final third of the account that any science fiction elements shine through. Guardian is still engrossing enough to prove hard to put down, despite its lack of emphasis on the alien experience itself.

It took a little bit for me to adjust to this book. After all, we like to type cast our authors and we don't expect them to change genres. Of course Haldeman has been peaking into new genres for a while (Hemmingway Hoax and Buying Time come to mind) so I've come to expect new things in each of his novels. However this is a pretty big departure for him. What is it? Well basically it's a really good turn of the century adventure/drama though Haldeman does dabble his toe into the sci-fi waters a bit at the end.

In short this is a novel about a woman's journey with her son across late 1800s America as she flees an abusive husband. That physical journey mirrors here spiritual development as a person, which builds to the surprising twist at the end of the novel that makes it science fiction. So yes, it's a great book, but it is definitely not hard science fiction.

Written as a memoir, much of this book takes place in 19th Century America. Rosa Coleman was a part of high society in Philadelphia. After witnessing her husband sodomizing Daniel, their young son, she picked him up and fled across uncharted America by train and steamboat. Pinkerton detectives working for her husband were never far behind.

Months later, they found themselves in San Francisco, heading to Alaska to look for gold. Alaska was also as far way from Philadelphia as Rosa and Daniel could go. They were in the company of Doc and Charles, an older man and his son, also looking to strike it rich. Rosa and Doc hit it off, by 19th Century standards, pretty quickly. The only strange thing about Rosa and Daniel's journey was that every so often a raven would come down out of the sky, land in front of them, and squawk the words "No gold" before leaving.

Rosa decided to stay in the town of Sitka, rather than join the men in the Alaskan wilderness. She got a job as a schoolteacher, and met Gordon, part Russian priest and part shaman. They are both there to teach, and hopefully convert, the local Tlingit (native) children. The raven is considered a trickster in many cultures, including Tlingit.

After several months, Rosa received a letter from Charles saying that Doc and Charles were shot and killed in a streetcorner dispute. In a fit of despair, Rosa took out a pistol that she kept for protection, and was prepared to use it on herself. At that moment, a talking raven, part Gordon and part trickster, flew into her cabin and took her on a journey. She visited a planet of man-sized, mobile, intelligent plants. She visited a planet whose sun was stationary in the sky. She visited a devastated Times Square, far in her future. She was turned into a golden eagle, and into a carnivorous dinosaur. Rosa was taught all about alternate universes, and was returned to one where Doc and Daniel were still alive, because they hadn't yet made the trip into the Alaskan wilderness.

This is an excellent novel, but a pretty "quiet" novel. The science fiction doesn't start until about the last quarter of the story. By the end, it gets nice and weird, and will give the reader plenty to consider. Two thumbs up.

She was only a child when the civil war started but her parents were wise enough to send her up North to relatives when it looked like the south would lose. She stayed at a boarding school until she went to Wellestey College where she met and later married Edward Tolliver, a rich and powerful man. The marriage wasn't a happy one but when Rosa saw her husband sodomize their son Daniel, she knew it was time to leave.

Rosa and Daniel traveled to Dodge City where they had many happy years together until a Pinkerton agent hired by Edward arrived on the scene to take Daniel back to his father. Daniel conked the agent over the head, allowing them to escape and they decide to see if they could get rich in Alaska. While Daniel is in the field panning for gold, a drunken miner kills him and Rosa decides to kill herself until a spirit guide named Raven takes her around the universe. When Rosa returns, her actions change the course of history and save millions of lives.

Award winning author Joe Haldeman has written a very simple story about a woman's fight to survive and triumph. What is not so simple is the way the protagonist has to learn those lessons but what would defeat another person doesn't even phase Rose. She takes what she learns and applies it to her everyday life and in doing so makes the world a better place.

Harriet Klausner

... but then what is. Solidly written, the story moves well and is enjoyable. Haldeman begins to move back to his solid foundation established in the likes of Forever War and Mindbridge.

Haldeman continually changes and reshapes the face of SF with the precision of a plastic surgeon. His plots, pace, and characters are honed, scalpel sharp, to continually astound and amaze the reader. 'Guardian' is a trip into an Alaska during the 1860s, that is far more remote and alien than Pluto. An incredible journey fraught with danger, filled with courage in the face of adversity, and first contact. Haldeman has out done himself - again! Gary S. Potter Author/Poet

Guardian is a science ficion novel that reads like fantasy, resembling The Hemingway Hoax in many ways. The main premise is similar to Attanasio's Radix series; a probability multiverse where someone is trying to optimize the outcome.

The protaganist is an old woman, Rosa Coleman, who has left a fictionalized account of her life which her grandson has published as the novel Guardian. Sound like a familiar gimmick? Born in 1858 in Helen Mills, Georgia, Rosa leads an interesting but fairly dull life until 1894, when she decides to leave her husband for good and sufficient reasons. She lets Daniel, her 14 year old son, select the destination, so they flee to Dodge City, Kansas, with visions of gunfighters in Daniel's head.

After being found by the Pinkertons in Dodge City, Rosa and son leave for Denver enroute to the Yukon gold fields. They meet Doc and Chuck Coleman on the way and accompany them to Alaska. In Sitka, she has a profound experience that changes her life and the world around her.

The story includes a raven who shows up at critical times and other American Indian symbols and customs which strongly affect Rosa, yet the story is still not a fantasy.

Guardian moves a little slowly at times, yet with frequent and sudden instrusions of casual violence as would be expected of that time and place. The abrupt transition to the transcendental portion of the story is probably deliberately so. The next segment is filled with confusing images and ideas, leading literally to a new direction in Rosa's life.

This novel is not high adventure, but portrays a life similar to many others lived in the decades following the Civil War. The metaphysics is interesting yet remains strangely insignificant; Rosa is the center of interest in the story and the weirdness is only a passing oddity. Recommended to those who like history, strong but likable characters, and philosophical speculation.

-Arthur W. Jordin

I picked up Guardian because of the unique historical and character pov. I really liked the first 85% of the book. It was interesting to follow the Rosa and her son as they moved west and then to Alaska in the late 1800's.
But every once in a while she would hint and something that would "change everything she knew" or "change the world". They always seemed to be tacked onto the end of the chapters.
Suddenly, the end of the book throws us a twist and takes us on a short field trip across the universe. A spirit guardian takes Rosa to visit a couple of planets and what is supposedly the afterlife.
Up until then, the book was pretty interesting. The whole raven/guardian and space theme seemed to be tacked on after Haldeman lost interest in writing the original story.
I wish the sci-fi aspect was more than the last couple of chapters. So much more could have been done with this story, but Joe just ends it. There is no climax, just a very boring alternative history wrap-up.
Was it historical fiction of a fascinating episode in our nation's history? Or the first book in a fascinating sci-fi series with an 19th century schoolmarm as the heroine? It seems to be neither. Which is too bad.