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rory_kieran's review against another edition
mysterious
reflective
relaxing
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.25
I didn't know what to expect going into this since I've never heard of the author or book before, so I was really walking into the unknown. Camouflage faces the same challenge I've seen many short sci-fi novels face, it tries to do a lot in a short time which makes for a book that has a decent but somewhat slow first 3/4 followed by a riveting last 1/4. It also falls victim to the challenge of building compelling characters that the reader can emotionally invest in.
The falling in love bit wasn't convincing and left me want more. It came off as more tell rather than show. I was mostly told they were in love but show quite a little, especially since the love between the two characters became central to the plot from that point onward. It felt like a left turn turn with little to no set up, but it also breathed life into a book that had started to feel somewhat rudderless in the middle section.
I appreciate the attempt to create two parallel storylines that converge but the execution left something to be desired. The ending was also kind of a corny cliffhanger which made me arch my left brow and wonder huh? Although it left me with a lot to think about regarding loneliness, survival, mortality and the meaning of life. It's by no means a bad book, it kept me engaged with its core mystery and got me out of my reading slump but there isn't much to sing praises about here.
The falling in love bit wasn't convincing and left me want more. It came off as more tell rather than show. I was mostly told they were in love but show quite a little, especially since the love between the two characters became central to the plot from that point onward. It felt like a left turn turn with little to no set up, but it also breathed life into a book that had started to feel somewhat rudderless in the middle section.
I appreciate the attempt to create two parallel storylines that converge but the execution left something to be desired. The ending was also kind of a corny cliffhanger which made me arch my left brow and wonder huh? Although it left me with a lot to think about regarding loneliness, survival, mortality and the meaning of life. It's by no means a bad book, it kept me engaged with its core mystery and got me out of my reading slump but there isn't much to sing praises about here.
oleksandr's review against another edition
5.0
This SF novel is written with some golden age (Heinlein, Asimov, etc) flavor, without overburdening the text with attempts to sound as a serious literature but instead of relying on interesting ideas. The story starts with the alien (in just a few paragraphs revealing more than other books do bin 100s pages), the menace from far away and then spans over a hundred years from the 1930s to the near future of the 2020s. it keeps a good pace and I really enjoyed the book and plan to check some other novels written by the author
meretseger4's review against another edition
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
dendorf's review against another edition
3.0
It kept me interested from beginning to end. A decent book. Just nothing all that special about it to me.
nwhyte's review against another edition
4.0
http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/678244.html
It bears a very strong resemblance to Octavia Butler's Wild Seed, with the story being the interweaving of two threads about immortals (in this case, probably alien) living in our world, who are drawn together by an alien artifact discovered in the Pacific Ocean in 2019. Indeed, perhaps the award of the Nebula was partly a tribute to Butler's novel. Haldeman, of course, puts his own riffs on it - basically, he brings in much more science, and much more of the military, and makes it into a love story as well. All adds up to a very enjoyable book, which I would certainly have overlooked if it had not won the award.
https://nwhyte.livejournal.com/3821173.html
Coming back to it after fifteen years, I had forgotten almost everything about it but enjoyed it all the more for that, though I have little to add to the above. Haldeman is not what you would think of as a typical potential Tiptree/Otherwise Award winner, yet he has always had an inclination to explore sexuality, which doesn't always take him down the right track; but this time it did.
It bears a very strong resemblance to Octavia Butler's Wild Seed, with the story being the interweaving of two threads about immortals (in this case, probably alien) living in our world, who are drawn together by an alien artifact discovered in the Pacific Ocean in 2019. Indeed, perhaps the award of the Nebula was partly a tribute to Butler's novel. Haldeman, of course, puts his own riffs on it - basically, he brings in much more science, and much more of the military, and makes it into a love story as well. All adds up to a very enjoyable book, which I would certainly have overlooked if it had not won the award.
https://nwhyte.livejournal.com/3821173.html
Coming back to it after fifteen years, I had forgotten almost everything about it but enjoyed it all the more for that, though I have little to add to the above. Haldeman is not what you would think of as a typical potential Tiptree/Otherwise Award winner, yet he has always had an inclination to explore sexuality, which doesn't always take him down the right track; but this time it did.
francescaalexis's review against another edition
3.0
Haldeman cannot write romance from either a queer or female perspective, and it helps sink the last third of this novel. [b:Marsbound|2407022|Marsbound|Joe Haldeman|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1266796909s/2407022.jpg|2414193] has very similar problems, and it's something I just can't get over.
There are some beautiful ideas here-like many other reviewers have said, the prologue is great, and the depiction of a very alien creature acclimatizing to human society is just fascinating.
And then it gets to the end, which is not only anticlimatic and rushed, but it has this ridiculous romance plot tacked on, and it has to be a STRAIGHT romance, all caps. It wouldn't have bothered me had the first section not been so good.
I recommend reading the first two thirds of this book.
There are some beautiful ideas here-like many other reviewers have said, the prologue is great, and the depiction of a very alien creature acclimatizing to human society is just fascinating.
And then it gets to the end, which is not only anticlimatic and rushed, but it has this ridiculous romance plot tacked on, and it has to be a STRAIGHT romance, all caps. It wouldn't have bothered me had the first section not been so good.
I recommend reading the first two thirds of this book.
juliemawesome's review against another edition
3.0
A shapeshifting alien becomes human and might very well live an immortal life that way, but the ship it came in (or something like that) has been dredged up from the bottom of the ocean.
Alternately told about the being, in the past, and scientists in the present (well, our future) trying to break in or communicate with this thing they've recovered.
It was interesting. Even though it had a feel of big picture, what's-this-thing, lots of superficial characters moving the plot along, type of book, it actually was better than that. Even though I never did feel very attached to the characters, and had trouble believing their emotions.
I'm not going to shy away from reading other books by Haldeman, especially as a couple of his have shown up on various lists I intend to read. But I don't know that I'll run right out and do it immediately either.
Alternately told about the being, in the past, and scientists in the present (well, our future) trying to break in or communicate with this thing they've recovered.
It was interesting. Even though it had a feel of big picture, what's-this-thing, lots of superficial characters moving the plot along, type of book, it actually was better than that. Even though I never did feel very attached to the characters, and had trouble believing their emotions.
I'm not going to shy away from reading other books by Haldeman, especially as a couple of his have shown up on various lists I intend to read. But I don't know that I'll run right out and do it immediately either.
dreams_of_attolia's review against another edition
2.0
I give Haldeman credit for an interesting construct. The 'immortal alien' bit created the opportunity for some interesting forays into history, and the 'changeling' bit created the opportunity to put the characters into a variety of situations and thus examine a variety of human experiences. On the other hand, I never really believed the construct. I like sci fi that seems plausible given our current scientific understanding and enough time in the future for technology to advance. This was more of the "I'm going to write sci fi so I can make up whatever suits my story" type of sci fi, and that just isn't my thing. I didn't buy the explanation for how the changeling species evolved, and I found it improbable that two different changeling species evolved in two different distant planets and both happened to end up on earth simultaneously.
There was also at least one instance of the book not following its own set of earlier-defined rules for this universe, which is one of my biggest pet peeves in any work of sci-fi or fantasy. The author repeatedly states that the changeling remembers nothing about where it came from or any scientific knowledge it had from its home world, which is why the changeling spends so much time learning everything humans know at that point in Earth history about marine biology and astrophysics. Basically, it doesn't know anything that we don't know. So how exactly, in 1948, does it examine genetic material and know that it indicates a pre-disposition for high cholesterol and diabetes, 5 years before Watson and Crick even discovered the structure of DNA and decades before we'd started associating particular genetic codes with particular diseases?! That was just a couple of sentences in the book, but internal consistency is really important to me
There was also at least one instance of the book not following its own set of earlier-defined rules for this universe, which is one of my biggest pet peeves in any work of sci-fi or fantasy. The author repeatedly states that the changeling remembers nothing about where it came from or any scientific knowledge it had from its home world, which is why the changeling spends so much time learning everything humans know at that point in Earth history about marine biology and astrophysics. Basically, it doesn't know anything that we don't know. So how exactly, in 1948, does it examine genetic material and know that it indicates a pre-disposition for high cholesterol and diabetes, 5 years before Watson and Crick even discovered the structure of DNA and decades before we'd started associating particular genetic codes with particular diseases?! That was just a couple of sentences in the book, but internal consistency is really important to me