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jdhacker 's review for:
Forever Free
by Joe Haldeman
Haldeman’s Forever War is a classic of the sci-fi genre, with its clear metaphors for the Vietnam War and warnings about the cost of war itself to us as people. It’s thematic, though certainly not narrative, sequel Forever Peace may have lacked some of the punch of its forebear, but presented as an essentially stand alone novel it also provided some interesting thoughts on the costs of peace (what might we have to sacrifice in order to ensure a lasting peace).
This final installment, I think, tried not only to hint at elements unifying those two stories (though only characters from Forever War are directly involved), but to provide a similar perspective on what the potential cost of true ‘freedom’ might be. What it means to truly be ‘free’ have been examined extensively by everyone from existentialist philosophers, to theologians, to political pundits, to anime and genre literature. Unfortunately, if I am correct about that being the intention of this ebook, Haldeman fails pretty spectacularly at it.
For the first half to three quarters of the book we have a pretty engaging, slightly crunchy, sci-fi story in Haldeman’s enjoyable style. Once we get past some of the initial points of conflict within the story though, it takes a turn for the inexplicable and weird...and really never recovers. It bounces to a bit of libertarian survivalism through communist living ala farnahm’s freehold, then makes a move for the even stranger as in the last quarter a variety of different elements are tossed in with very little explanation serving mostly as exposition all outlets and duex ex machina was to wrap up the plot.
I’m not sure if the writer was under time pressure to get this done, or perhaps a hack job was done on it in editing to cause a reasonably promising beginning to go so awry, or if he set out without a clear picture of what he wanted to do to get from beginning to end points in his plot or simply didn’t have an end goal in mind. Regardless, if you’re a fan of Haldeman i’d skip this, unless you’re just a completionist.
This final installment, I think, tried not only to hint at elements unifying those two stories (though only characters from Forever War are directly involved), but to provide a similar perspective on what the potential cost of true ‘freedom’ might be. What it means to truly be ‘free’ have been examined extensively by everyone from existentialist philosophers, to theologians, to political pundits, to anime and genre literature. Unfortunately, if I am correct about that being the intention of this ebook, Haldeman fails pretty spectacularly at it.
For the first half to three quarters of the book we have a pretty engaging, slightly crunchy, sci-fi story in Haldeman’s enjoyable style. Once we get past some of the initial points of conflict within the story though, it takes a turn for the inexplicable and weird...and really never recovers. It bounces to a bit of libertarian survivalism through communist living ala farnahm’s freehold, then makes a move for the even stranger as in the last quarter a variety of different elements are tossed in with very little explanation serving mostly as exposition all outlets and duex ex machina was to wrap up the plot.
I’m not sure if the writer was under time pressure to get this done, or perhaps a hack job was done on it in editing to cause a reasonably promising beginning to go so awry, or if he set out without a clear picture of what he wanted to do to get from beginning to end points in his plot or simply didn’t have an end goal in mind. Regardless, if you’re a fan of Haldeman i’d skip this, unless you’re just a completionist.