Customer Reviews

Starbound (A Marsbound Novel)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This sequel to Marsbound introduces some new characters and the point of view alternates between characters throughout the book. However, I didn't find the new characters, or their POVs, to be especially engaging. I also thought the pace of this story was quite slow, and the ending was totally unsatisfying.

"Starbound", the sequel to the most excellent "Marsbound" is actually the second in a planned trilogy according to author Joe Haldeman. The final book in the series will be called "Earthbound" and is due out next year some time (see interview with JH at [...]

Regardless, whereas Marsbound, written from the perspective of a spunky, sparky, horny and clever young woman, Carmen Dula, who is forced to accompany her family to Mars was sharp, interesting, funny (Carmen's dialogue mostly), fast-paced and great SF, this sequel is dull, listless and just sort of slogs along. Carmen is back but does not even remotely resemble the Carmen of Marsbound, even though only a few years have passed. This time she, husband Paul and a handful of others, including a couple of Martians are on their way at subliminal speeds to the home world of the über-advanced "Others" who almost destroyed the all of mankind in Marsbound to try and make peace or die trying.

The story is all told in first person, and in many cases it is difficult to tell for several paragraphs or pages who is narrating. I found this disconcerting. The story is also boring - basically 7 humans plus two four legged, four armed Mr. Potato Head-horse hybrids stuck in a tin can for 6 years. Nothing of note happens, no great discoveries, some psychological problems but....

The meeting with the Others is anticlimactic and problematic from a plotting point of view. Without giving anything crucial away, I had a problem with just exactly how a race of super-advanced but ultra-slow moving and thinking life forms could possibly respond to events on a human time scale. We are just way, way too fast even for their thought processes so how could they possibly respond to things that happen over the course of a few years, let along near instantaneously? Just didn't make sense.

The ending was very abrupt and also didn't make much sense from a physics point of view, but of course it was intended to pave the way for the last in the trilogy I suppose.

I am a huge fan of Joe Haldeman and this is the first of his novels that I didn't think was great. Certainly do not read this one without first reading Marsbound - this one is not stand-alone - and don't read this as your introduction to the great SF of Joe Haldeman. Try "The Accidental Time Machine" instead. Perhaps the final entry in the series will pull everything together. I sure hope so.

JM Tepper

While a big fan of Haldeman, this one was just too much (or too little) for me. Actually quite boring and a very disapointing ending for having to endure so little action. The multi first person narrative left me guessing who was speaking and along with the gender-less names and anything-goes sexual relations I was completely confused by the characters. I've never worked so hard to figure out who was doing what to whom and in the end it didn't really seem to matter. Somewhere buried in there was a decent short story but I fear that there is a "Galaxybound" in the works.

Joe Haldeman's in vintage form once again with this novel of far-space travel. The second in a trilogy (following 2008's MARSBOUND) that traces the interactions of humans and Martians (trust Joe, it really does make sense) with mysterious, super-high-tech alien beings called the Others.

As usual with a Haldeman book, there's a lot of fun world-building and cool imaginary machines. The characterization is also strong, and a diary/ship's log structure helps convey different points of view from the motley interstellar crew.

All in all, a delightful adventure and a page-turner that's old-school but not stuffy. Looking forward to book 3!

I have enjoyed every other Haldeman novel I've read so it's hard to write a negative review, but here we are.

These was never any urgency and the characters never did anything of consequence to the story. Reading on the Kindle you can see the book is divided up into roughly thirds. After a couple chapters it was clear the breaks were roughly 1) the preparations for launch, 2) a multi-year trip, and 3) what happens after. I was deeply bored after the first third and the thought of being cooped up in a spaceship with these characters for several years made me cringe so I skipped the middle third. And I didn't miss a thing. Here we have a ship of humanity's first interstellar travelers on the first interstellar ship traveling 20+ light years on a mission to save the human race, and all that happens are two minor injuries and an air vent acts funny. Seriously. Any relavant bits that I missed ended up being told and retold in part 3 anyway. Going back later to read what I missed revealed a few events that seemed like they would have serious consequences, but ended up completely forgotten. No followup, no nothing. It just seemed sloppy.

Add to this that the main antagonist is seemingly all powerful and all knowing--except for one very specific thing that all the charters in the book agree it must know yet for some reason doesn't. And it acts completely random. No one understands why it does do anything it does. Things Just Happen and our characters are unrelated to them.

That said I'll probably get Earthbound (the sequel) the day it comes out. This all has to be leading somewhere, right?

Joe Haldeman has a dislike for the human race. In both "Starbound" and the "Forever War" sequel, "Forever Free," Haldeman posits godlike entities that have low opinions of humanity: we are akin to racoons -- cute but destructive beings that need to be contained, if not exterminated.

The original "The Day the Earth Stood Still" had the same message, but did it better with more interesting characterizations.

My problem with "Starbound" is that if the cold-slow aliens are omnipotent enough to pulverize the moon and bake planets lifeless, what danger could humanity pose to them?

This novel is one of a string of Haldeman books with unsatisfying endings.

Even already knowing the characters from MARSBOUND it didn't quite do it for me. I was expecting something more from the Gehenna incident than just establishing character depth. The ending is not what you expect but it is not surprising either...

Well, that is what I expect the title of a third book to be. This is a pretty good science fiction book, maybe even a great one, but I was crushed by the ending. Not that the ending is illogical or something that would be totally unexpected. But prospects look bleak.

As for everything else in the story, it is pretty darn good. There is a new character who is quite interesting, plus there are a couple of "Martians". There is high tension (Is this mission doomed? Are we going to screw up and get humanity blown away, or have they done it already?) Spaceships, new worlds, aliens, Oh My! Seriously good science fiction.

<later edit: I have snipped out a comment about varying the acceleration when getting close to lightspeed. That took longer than I expected, so I removed the comment. My revision was prompted by a comment. (Thanks))>

Something not mentioned in the book is the sudden lack of tides and its effect. The gravitation effect of a circumscribing sphere of dust is definitely not the same as a large moon. That's a major quibble.

I feel that technical things like that Haldeman could have sorted out by talking with folks at MIT where he teaches.

BTW the effect of the onset of 1g flight on the Martians was slightly amusing, but seemed plausible, given what we already knew of their method of um, waste disposal.

Unlike another reviewer, I had little troublee figuring out who was narrating each chapter. The voices were sufficiently different to figure out within a paragraph.

I wonder if Haldeman deliberately makes the Others act like Moonboy's foster father -- extreme punishments are us. Perhaps someone will come to help us, too.

It is a great story, I had the feeling early on that this could be another Hugo winner. I just hope a third volume will relieve the situation.

I like Haldeman's writing. I really do. Which is why it pains me to give this book a 1-star review.

The entire story felt disjointed. I grant, it was written from (at least) 3 perspectives, but this is just part of the problem. Having read the book, there are still chapters where I am totally uncertain who was 'speaking'.

It is difficult to write in different 'voices', and I'm afraid Haldeman did not pull it off here.

Some parts were believable - the refusal of the government to listen, for instance. But we're supposed to believe that we have here a race of people that have, from our perspective, nearly godlike powers, who have already attempted to kill us once (which was just a "test"...WHA??!), and all they do is reduce us to a pre-technological society instead of wiping us out? (Well, the new cloud of meteorites around the earth may take care of that little detail. Eventually.)

"Marsbound" was a good read, but this did not feel in the slightest bit coherent. Others may disagree, and probably will. I hope Haldeman's next book is back up to his usual standards.

I've read and enjoyed some of Haldeman's previous work, but he simply mailed in this effort, relying on his name and reputation to generate sales.

Plot? Nonexistent. "The Others have the ability to destroy Earth. . . and they do." We send a ship with assorted travelers to where we think they might be. Mission? Not really sure what the mission is, but in general, we're gong to ask them not to destroy us. Why should they listen? Well, we can't really say. Why did we pick the folks we're sending? No real reason; they just happened to be handy. Halfway to destination, Haldeman gets bored, so he invents a means to get them there instantaneously. What do the Others do at that point? Show them that they do, indeed, have the power to destroy Earth, humans, or only left-handed blondes between the ages of 36 and 38. Too bored to work out any more plot details, Haldeman flips the travelers instantaneously back to Earth, whereupon the Others decide to send humanity back to the pre-Industrial stage. So they do. The end.

Character development? Nope. The people at the end are the same as they were at the beginning. Except for one, who goes nuts and gets dropped off with the Others . . . hard to tell what became of him. Fantastic descriptions of what they see? Nope. Most of the non-action takes place in an extremely boring habitat attached to an iceberg (their fuel source). Interesting technological developments? Nope. Achievement? Solution of a problem? Resolution? Nope, nope, and nope. Clever dialog? Nope.

Had this been Haldeman's first novel, he would never have gotten it published. It deserves 0 stars, but of course, you cannot assign 0 stars to anything.