Customer Reviews

Old Twentieth

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(11)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Joe Haldeman is a wonder. He continues to produce a novel a year, each compact and intelligent and engaging and involving. At times he fumbles the ending (as with Guardian), but even in such a case the ride is very entertaining. And at other times, he finds a surprising yet internally logical ending that wholly satisfies -- so it was with The Coming, and now again with Old Twentieth. Haldeman also, as with some other veteran authors, has a certain facility with the toolbox of SF: with the classic ideas and again with the latest hot ideas; and he combines them effortlessly and effectively.

In Old Twentieth the ideas Haldeman juggles are immortality, Virtual Reality, Artificial Intelligence, and a variant on the generation starship. He is also, as the title tells us, concerned with the 20th Century, the bloodiest century (though the 21st will turn out to be bloodier, says this novel), and the last century in which death was inevitable.

Central to this novel are scenes of war. We open at Gallipoli, one of the worst battles of World War I. But somehow the narrator escapes certain death, and we quickly gather that he is really using Virtual Reality to experience a simulation of an historical situation. He is Jacob Brewer, whose family was rich enough to purchase an immortality treatment before an horrific war between the lucky immortals and the poorer people who couldn't afford the treatment. He and his mother were among a very few survivors, but a couple of centuries later, the world has recovered, and a stable population of a billion or so lives quite pleasant lives. And they have decided to mount an expedition to Beta Hydrii.

Jake is the VR expert on the fleet of starships. His job is to maintain the VR simulation, which is mainly used for immersive experiences in any number of times in the 20th Century. The story concerns the starships beginning their journey. Jake gets married (a ten year contract -- immortals don't marry for life). And as the journey begins, unsettling things start to happen in VR. The most unsettling thing is that people start dying -- immortals. Another concern is some minor inconsistencies in the VR backgrounds. Jake's insistence on returning again and again to the VR tanks, dangerous as they seem to be becoming, puts great strains on his marriage. And he begins to realize that the VR system itself may be showing signs of independent action...

That's the main arc of the "present day" story: a mystery concerning problems in VR, and potential AI activity. And the resolution to this arc is quite surprising, and quite effective. But the story gains depth -- dare I say gravitas -- from the background supplied by the recurring trips to 20th Century milieus: World War I, the influenza epidemic, the Roaring Twenties, the Depression, World War II, Vietnam, the first Gulf War, etc. These, combined with Jake's memories of his youthful experiences in the terrible war that nearly ended human civilization, provide a dark but oddly hopeful backdrop to the story of an expedition of immortal humans to another star -- a likely one way trip for no reason but knowledge, and a trip that almost before it starts is ominously freighted with the reappearance of the specter of death.

I hope I don't damn with faint praise when I say that this isn't a great novel: just another very good novel, to add to a long list of very good novels from Joe Haldeman. He may be the writer I can most reliably turn to for a worthwhile SF novel every time out. Old Twentieth is a great pleasure to read, and it rewards your reading not just with page turning interest but with thoughtful speculation. What more do we want from SF?

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The backstory here is that, following the discovery of medical "immortality", a civil war resulted in the deaths of all 7 billion people who hadn't yet received the (very expensive) treatment, via a precisely-targeted [note 1] war-virus. After the death of 97% of humanity, civilization more-or-less collapses, of an acute shortage of repairmen -- and all the other non-rich folk who kept the machinery running.

The story itself takes place aboard humanity's first starship, launched almost a century after the War. The protagonist operates the ship's "time machine", an elaborate virtuality for exploring history. The machine turns out to have unexpected emergent qualities, which won't surprise the experienced reader.

I'm ambivalent about this one. It's beautifully-written, and far superior to Camouflage, his last. There's some really cool stuff here, especially the emergent AI's strange personality. The ending will forcefully remind you of a classic no-no for beginning writers -- though, in fairness, it is a logical outcome, given the setup. But unsatisfying, dammit. Second-rank Haldeman -- which means it's still pretty darned good: "B+"
Regular Haldeman readers will note his repeated use of historical recreations, Vietnam flashbacks, immortality, graphic violence, and steamy sex. The first four are prominent in _Old Twentieth_, which has some sexy bits as well.

Google for a (very good) full review, by Paul di Filippo, who gives it a "B" : "...this book feels like a slim placeholder between larger works for one of SF's best writers."

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[1] --which isn't terribly credible, but is fine for a background plot-device.

Happy reading!
Pete Tillman
Review copyright ©2005 by Peter D. Tillman

Joe Haldeman's latest novel is not "Alternative History", but if you're a fan of the genre, you will find "Old Twentieth" an interesting read. As usual, Haldeman sets himself a difficult talk by distilling an epic story into a single volume. Expansive in scope, but not in length, it exemplifies Haldeman's compact and efficient writing style. Haldeman takes us on a journey that explores the downsides of immortality as his characters deal with guilt and search for redemption. Humans who have cheated death and are haunted by a tragic past, seek resolution in virtual reality scenarios recreating 20th Century events where death was common.

One of the most interesting of theses scenarios takes us from the far future back to the 1918 Spanish influenza pandemic. Haldeman gives the reader a sobering glimpse of the horrors of the 1918 pandemic which are only vaguely alluded to in current news stories discussing the possibility of a new pandemic looming on our horizon. Oddly, there are relatively FEW examples in literature that attempt to portray an event that killed over 500,000 Americans in a single year. Katherine Anne Porter's Pale Horse, Pale Rider is one of the only examples. This alone makes Haldeman's exposition an interesting read.

Immortality, multiple scenarios of tragic history both past and future, space travel, self-conscious computers.... Only Haldeman would try to combine these wide ranging topics into a single story. As usual, it makes for an enjoyable read. Does the novel have rough edges? Of course it does. It's actually one of the interesting aspects of reading a Haldeman novel. Although there is a distinctive flavor to Haldeman's writing, he is not formulaic. He tinkers and experiments with new ideas and writing styles. In Old Twentieth, he plays with multiple writing styles which make the novel even more complex and a bit convoluted. For instance, the style and flow of the opening chapter struck me as odd, until I remembered Haldeman's unabashed love for Hemingway. Then, everything became clear. Haldeman is a product of his own wartime experiences in Vietnam, and this novel plays with themes seen in his other novels. Old Twentieth is an enjoyable novel that requires some mental gymnastics from the reader; exactly my reason for recommending it!

Old Twentieth is at face value a book about the journey a bunch of immortals take to another planet. Underneath that basic plot lies a more subtle message about the desire/need that people have to live in the past.

The Earth of Old Twentieth is populated by immortals. After a process is found to give immortality a large war starts between the people who have immortality and those that don't. This war ends when an engineered biological agent called Lot 92 is released and kills all those who have not received the immortality treatment.

The protagonist of Old Twentieth is Jacob Brewer. Brewer is one of the people who lived through the immortality war and one of the first to receive the immortality treatment. Brewer is a virtual reality engineer aboard the starship Aspera that is starting a thousand year voyage to Beta Hydrii. He oversees the use and maintenance of what they call the time machine. The time machine is a virtual reality device that the crew of the Aspera use to dilute the tedium of a long voyage across the stars. At the same time it is also clear that these devices are in widespread use on Earth as well. The most popular place to visit in the time machine happens to be the twentieth century, hence the book's title.

The plot of Old Twentieth has many different pieces working within it. When immortals start dying and the apparent cause is the time machine it causes some of the crew to examine just how important the device is to them. At the same time Brewer determines that the AI that controls the time machine experience has become self aware. How he deals with that and the deaths aboard ship are central to the plot of the book.

Brewer's travels within the time machine to different times and places illustrate the effectiveness of the device at portraying another reality and at the same time provide some interesting ways for Haldeman to explore some of the greater horrors of the twentieth century. While Haldeman creates vivid past scenarios, at times their presentation is a bit jarring and feels like it breaks the flow of the novel. In most of the scenes, especially later in the novel, we find Brewer breaking the fourth wall of the time machine scenario to interact with the AI or one of his other present day counterparts.

The plot moves in fits and starts until the end when everything comes together, but the denouement doesn't have quite the kick that the end of Worlds did. It's tricky, but at the same time it's not clear that we had a real chance to see the trick coming so it feels forced. I'll say no more to avoid spoiling things.

This isn't a five star book like Worlds or the Forever War and I didn't enjoy it as much as Buying Time (another more interesting examination of immortality by Haldeman) to which I gave a four star rating. It sits at a solid three.

With more Hugo, Nebula, and other prestigious awards than he can probably keep track of, Joe Haldeman is a modern-day master that needs no introduction to science fiction fans. His 1975 novel, The Forever War, to take just one example, is unquestionably Science Fiction 101 material. In his latest offering, Old Twentieth, he offers a nostalgic look back at the good old twentieth century from a distant future where interstellar travel is practical, warfare is a relic of history, and man has seemingly gained immortality.

As we soon learn, however, this idyllic new world hundreds of years in the future came at the heaviest of prices. Ironically, the seeds of man's self-destruction were sown in its greatest triumph, the Becker-Cendrek Process. With the introduction of the BCP pill, man finally attained the ultimate prize of immortality. You could, of course, still die in some horrible accident or fall victim to some devastating attack, but death by natural causes suddenly became a thing of the past. Unfortunately, only the rich and powerful could afford BCP pills at first, and this eventually led to a cataclysmic war between the haves and have-nots, a war that ended rather suddenly and decisively with the introduction of a biological agent called Lot 92. Seven billion people died, leaving two hundred million immortals to rebuild and move on. It was only natural that this new society would eventually reach for the stars.

Jacob Brewer is one of eight hundred volunteers selected to join a five-ship, one thousand-year mission to the Earth-like planet orbiting Beta Hydrii. His primary responsibility, as chief virtuality engineer, is the management and oversight of the onboard "time machine." This is not a time machine in the technical sense; it's more akin to the holograph decks featured so prominently in Star Trek: The Next Generation. With mind-boggling bits of historical information at its disposal, this machine can, via its virtual reality interface, put you whenever and wherever you want to go in the past. By far, the most popular destinations are to be found in the 1900s, as a majority of these interstellar travelers seem to be fascinated by the prospect of death that defined an individual's life back in Old Twentieth. Fully immersed in the VR experience, you can get yourself killed in the most horrific of ways - only to arise fit as a fiddle at the end of the simulation.

Suddenly, though, the unthinkable happens - a couple of Jacob's clients actually die during VR sessions. As information is slowly exchanged with Earth across the gulf of outer space, Jacob sets out to determine if the machine could have possibly been responsible for these tragedies. As his investigation progresses, he begins to worry that there may in fact be a ghost in the machine - namely, the machine itself. The impossibility of a time machine's Artificial Intelligence somehow attaining sentience on its own starts to lose its foundation when the machine's self-produced avatar sidles up to inform you that the two of you need to have a talk.

Some Haldeman fans aren't all that thrilled about the ending of Old Twentieth, and I have to admit its somewhat open-ended nature isn't as exciting or conclusive as I would have liked, but I think it does make for a satisfactory fit with the story leading up to it - and, make no mistake, this is an author who really knows how to tell a story. The fact that this very good novel proves somewhat disappointing to some of Haldeman's fans just goes to show you how incredibly gifted a writer he really is.

Joe Haldeman's Old Twentieth is set far in the future, when near-immortal citizens long for the days when bodies spontaneously healed and death was caused by disease and age. A virtual reality time machine can bring them in contact with the bygone world of their past - but when the time machine itself becomes sentient, it too is obsessed with humanity - and wants its engineer Jacob to debate life. An intriguing, engrossing story; hard to put down.

The Becker-Cendrek Process allowed man to achieve immortality. Death only came to those who suffered accidents or died while pregnant when the procedure is temporarily discontinued. Two hundred years after the Immortality War that killed all but 200 million immortals humanity decided to send five spaceships to an uninhabited earth like planet revolving around Beta Hydrii. The eight-hundred crewmembers were going to the planet and they passed much of their time in a virtual reality time machinelike machine.

They visited places and events in the twentieth century, the last century when death was a foregone conclusion to life. Jacob Brewer, a virtual reality engineer (and part time cook) is studying the data stream for anachronisms when he notices there is no sense of smell in certain virtual reality years in New York City. When a woman dies in virtual reality, Jacob investigates the problem and meets the sentient avatar of the time machine. Now Jacob has to find out what it wants and what its agenda really is.

One of Joe Haldeman's greatest gifts is his ability to always surprise the reader by taking the storyline in a completely unexpected direction. Readers realize the immortals have the same feelings, fears and beliefs as mortals and since the oldest is only a few centuries old ennui hasn't had a chance to settle in. Virtual reality takes on a whole different meaning in OLD TWENTIETH, a science fiction novel worthy of Hugo and Nebula nominations.

Harriet Klausner

I've posted other reviews to Joe Haldeman's books (most recently Camoflage, which I liked very much) and I'm on record as being a fan of the man's writing. Even his less than stellar books are well written, compelling page turners.

Old Twentieth presupposed a future in which humanity has achieved immortality but in doing so, they've sacrificed much of what's made them human. The perspective is interesting. Without certain, eventual death ahead, are the people aboard the starship heading outward bound still human? They're only 250 years into their immortality and suddenly death begins happening again. What's causing it? What's the mystery that lurks within the core of their lives?

The book is well written. I believe Mr. Haldeman structures his books carefully and then allows himself the conceit of writing within his structure. In books like Forever War, Camoflage and others, this works well. In Old Twentieth, it means we get a five page discourse in which our protagonist chases and slaughters a duck.

Having said that, I liked the book, liked the story. If I have a problem with it, it is only that it seems to end very abruptly and just when its getting really interesting. I'd have like to have known more about these people including what eventually happens after the 'ending' of the book.

Not one of Joe's best but truely that probably means its light years ahead of most writers. I'll keep buying them and reading them so long as he keeps writing them.

Part of this story picks up where Worlds enough and Time (? the 3rd in the series) left off. totally diff peeps and premise, but the background story - going on a sleeper/generation/long trip to the closest suspected extrasolar habital planet.

I have to admit I am a Haldaman fan and I read most of what he publishes. I have even sent him a few emails and used to read his newsgroup.

I liked the story - I was however more facinated with the backstory then the main story. The background is that there was a war against the elite that had recieved prolong/imortality drug and the have nots. The elites won by biowarfare destroying all non-imortals. As happens a planet was discovered within the new lifespan of man - and so man wants to go.

The story of the immoratl war, the trip thru space and that there was a problem with people losing their imortality rather unexpectidly and abrubtly was all pretty interesting. Half of the book (about) was spent in VR discovering part of the problem with the AI running the VR thru various years in the twentieth century. A good device to place our hero in various locations, didn't really detract from the story - and was something to use as a way to put a different spin on an oft told tale (The journey to another star story).

In the end however - I was left wanting to know a few details such as do they ever make it? What was causing the Immortality drug to fail? Is there a part two?

Many here on Amazon have complained about Joe's endings as being somewhat abrupt and I imagine this book falls into the same category where when it was over I was left without a feeling of completness.

Good read tho and I enjoyed it - I just wanted a little more loose ends resolved at the end.

OLD TWENTIETH is the first book I've read by Joe Haldeman, and although I'm glad I read the book, I just can't help but be disappointed by the ending. It's hard to write a comprehensive review without giving away spoilers, but I'll try my best. That said, I gave the book 4 Stars due to the fact that it WAS an exciting sci-fi read, with a wonderful balance of scientific facts, dialogue, virtual reality, and human emotion.

The discovery of immortality led, inevitably, to the Immortality War. People who could not afford the high-priced Becker-Cendrek Process, which causes humans to become immortal, struck out against those who manufactured it, and in 2047 Earth found itself in the middle of a full-scale war. It ended with Lot 92, a biological agent that within five minutes killed off 7 billion mortal humans, leaving Earth with a much more manageable number of 200 million immortals.

In 2188, humans discovered the existence of Beta Hydrii, which was circled by at least one planet with free oxygen and water. Determined to discover if this planet, which would take at least 1,000 years to reach, could sustain a human population, a convoy of research ships takes off to check out its viability.

The main character of the book, Jacob Brewer, serves alternately as a chef on the convoy of ships and the chief engineer of the "time machine"--a full-scale virtual reality machine that can take people back into the past and immerse them in the culture of their chosen year. Inevitably, things start to go wrong during the journey to Beta Hydrii, specifically with those people who take trips in the time machine. What follows is probably the logical conclusion to such a tale, and really is an entertaining story--until the last couple of chapters.

I probably should have seen it coming. The logical series of events that leads up to the ending of OLD TWENTIETH isn't far-fetched if you've paid attention to the chapters preceding it. That said, however, I hated the ending. Like the movie(s) The Complete Matrix Trilogy [HD DVD], the beginning of the book started off with a bang; the middle was enjoyable; and the ending left me screaming in frustration.

For sci-fi fans, you'll enjoy this book. The trips back to the twentieth century via the time machine, although violent in nature and description, were truly interesting. As long as you know in advance that the ending is bound to dissapoint you, you'll be able to take the book for what it truly is--a story about human's obsession with death and technology, and how the two don't always mix.