Rating: 
Summary: Makes Plan IX look well thought out.
Review: This book is astonishingly bad. The initial part of the book is slow paced, filled with irrelevant and distracting detail. It is conceivable that such detail would have been useful in a book with an actual plot, but all turns out to be pure filler. Normally one expects the back cover blurb to give a precis of the context for the book and may be a bit of the initial action. In this case it covers about 2/3 of the entire novel. To end it, Haldeman pulls out not just one but _two_ Deus Ex Machinas. Multiple potentially interesting plot lines are just blown off. Prior civilizations, planetary anomalies, the fate of the people left on the crippled starship, interspecies justice and a murder mystery, all brought up and forgotten. In the latter, one of the human crew members is killed by a Tauran. The resolution? "Well, nobody liked the guy anyway so we'll just move on". That's not a spoiler because it doesn't relate to the plot at all - it has no relationship with anything that goes on before or after. The novel is filled with exactly this kind of random, disconnected event. I just wish that I could forget the contents as fast as the author apparently did.
Rating: 
Summary: O.K, what happened?
Review: I love Joe Haldeman books I have read all of the books of "Te Forever War". But there is not way I can describe this book except this. Think of a mirror and around Pg. 25 that mirror gets shattered into about 100 little bits and chunks. There are plot lines that make no sense, Charecters that make sense and a final resolution(the end of the book) tha makes eve less sense. My Impression-If you have any respect for Joe Haldeman at all, aviod this one.
Rating: 
Summary: Generally entertaining, but pointless
Review: This book is a sequel to The Forever War only in the sense that the characters are the same people. To me, the Forever War is a classic piece of literature, flawlessly incorporating science (or rather, the consequences of scientific theories such as relativity). Wedded to the science is a logical futuristic extension of military life and warfare. However, Forever Free is not a sequel in terms of subject matter, and is not nearly as immersing a book. It consequently suffers from the comparison. Mandela, the hero of Forever War, has settled down, had a family, and is growing restless. He suggests a bold plan - steal a ship, point it off into space and fly out for 5 years, and then back for 5. By going fast enough, time on the planet will have progressed 40 000 years, due to the relativistic time dilation. This is an interesting idea, although I question the sanity of anyone undertaking the task of trying to envision life 40 000 years from now.... At any rate, without revealing the plot, various things happen to foil the plan. Unfortunately, the twists are added randomly - they are "Deus Ex Machina" plot mechanations that do not rise naturally from the text. I don't mind one of these kinds of twists, but here there are a several, some of which are completely unnecessary. Again, without revealing the plot, the ending seems like he ran out of ideas and just stopped writing. Having said that negative stuff, I have to admit that I was interested in what would happen next. His main invention, a "group-minded" species called Man, is very interesting. Basically all these people are genetically identical (cloned) and periodically upload their new experiences to the Group Mind, so they have the same knowledge/experience. To quote one of the characters, "Seems to me you're just a bunch of commies!" But they are well-developed, and it's an interesting take on a potential future for mankind.
Rating:
Summary: Decent read, but lacks the astonishing depth of Forever War
Review: There have been a number of bitterly critical reviews of "Forever Free" posted here, but it seems that it is more out of the disappointment of this book being much less than its predecessor, "The Forever War", than it being a terrible book on its own. After having read, "Forever Free", I have come to conclude that the book, itself, is a solid, modestly enjoyable read. Yet, it is nowhere near as good as "Forever War". The best way to categorize the difference in the two is that "Forever War" had the feel of a grand, sweeping, epic theatrical production whereas "Forever Free" feels more like a made-for-TV episode.
The story follows the lives of 'Forever War' veteran, William Mandella, his wife Marygay, and their colony of veterans and independent humans who don't wish to be a part of the new human society that has seemed to evolve to single-consciousness existence. In addition, this single-minded human species is now a partner in space travel with the enemy race from the previous novel, the Taurans. Not content to live out their lackluster lives on a frozen colony world, Mandella and over one hundred of the independent humans, decide to hijack the shuttle that they used to use to make time-warping 'collapsar jumps' and jump some 40,000 years in the future to see what becomes of the human species. Alas, something goes wrong early in the voyage and the veterans are forced to abandon the shuttle and return home in escape ships with more than 30 years time having elapsed since the voyage began. Something drastically wrong has happened on their planet and in the universe and they set out to find out the answers.
"Forever Free" is essentially an inconsequential follow-up to "Forever War". It seems that author Joe Haldeman was trying to make some broad statements with the crisis that these characters are forced to resolve, but, in the end, it doesn't really add up to much. Despite the direction this book takes, I don't feel it takes anything away from its predecessor the way oh... the "Star Wars" prequels seriously damage the grand scale of the original trilogy. As I said, it's largely inconsequential, but it's not a bad book. So that is what earns it the rating I have given it.
Rating:
Summary: The reviewers are right...
Review: I read The Forever War a few months back, and I loved it. I wondered why I hadn't ever gotten around to reading it before. Then I read Forever Peace and really, really liked it. Not quite 5 stars, but almost. Then when Forever Free came available in paperback, I saw all the negative reviews, and I thought, "Aw, come on! Must be a bunch of Haldeman haters!" So I ordered it, and I read it. Ugh. Trust me, the reviewers are right: This is one to avoid. I remember how, when the movie Star Trek 5 came out, my friends and I went to watch it, and afterwards, depressed, we said, "You know, I'm just going to pretend that one never happened." That's the way I feel about Forever Free. (And its plot is remarkably similar to Star Trek 5, too.) It felt like Haldeman just wasn't trying. Joe, if you read this: I'm not enraged, I'm just disappointed. Really disappointed. You can do better than that.
Rating:
Summary: "Was this trip really necessary?"
Review: Seeing as Haldeman makes a running joke of misquotations by William Mandela -the narrator and protagonist of this novel- of catch phrases from 20th century America, this couldn't help but pop into my mind as a fitting title for a review of this immensely dissapointing work. (It was an exortation to conserve fuel on the home front during WW2 which you'll find cleverly placed in Warner Bros. cartoons from the period) The first half reads much like a weak copy of the nitty gritty space pioneering so well done by Kim Stanley Robinson in the Red Mars series. It does have the virtues of being told through the sardonic point of view of Mandella and reintroducing us to the characters we cared about in the original, "Forever War" (Marygay, Diana, and Charley). The second half, however, comes across like a parody of the Left Behind franchise as dreamed up by, say, Joe Cartoon ("Supahfly! Yeah!"). I'm not kidding! I found "Forever War" personally deeply affecting. I'll admit to having rather a rose-colored glasses view in imagining how Mandella and Co. would fare after the War. That the planet they shipped off to was named Middle Finger should have been a tip off that things were going to be bittersweet at best... but really this was a shocking way to continue their story. First the Star Wars prequels, then this! To round things off I should probably rent Blues Brothers 2000 and get the full package deal of dissapointment. Reviving great stories after a long hiatus is probably not a very good idea. Maybe now I should be glad they haven't made a sequel to Buckaroo Bonzai. ;-)
Rating:
Summary: Surprisingly, not even worth it
Review: This is not a worthy successor to The Forever War. While Haldeman's style is in top form, his ideas are not. Even the favorable reviews concede that Forever Free has none of the impact of the original Forever War. What we have here is a forced novel springing from a half-formed idea that would have been better as a mediocre Twilight Zone episode. Over the past few year I've been reading most of Haldeman's works. While not all of them are treasures, almost all of them are worth reading. Usually even his worst books have something unique to offer that you can't find anywhere else. Unfortunately his newer work is not up to par, and this novel is not even worth a read. I would highly suggest Forever Peace. While not a true sequel in the sense of plot or setting, it is really the logical successor to The Forever War in terms of ideas.
Rating:
Summary: A complete waste of time
Review: Awful. Just awful. Haldeman is capable of writing an excellent novel, as evidenced by "The Forever War" which is far and away my favorite SF-War novel. This book has nothing to say, but nevertheless manages to say it in an almost incoherent (and completely unentertaining) way. Save your time and money, and look elsewhere.
Rating:
Summary: Only for fans of The Forever War
Review: More 2.5 stars instead of 3.0. Joe Haldeman is "famous" for _The Forever War_ which really was an enjoyable book about a soldier (William Mandella) recruited to fight a few years for his planet only to have ~1500 years pass on Earth due to relativistic effects. He returns to Earth finding himself an outcast by 15 centuries of time. William and many of his fellow soldier end up settling on a frigid planet 80 (?) light years from Earth where they can live out their lives with people from the same century. _Forever Free_ is the story that takes place several years after _The Forever War_. William and his wife decide they don't like the manipulative Earthers and Taurans dabbling in their affairs. They decide to hijack the orbiting stasis ship, head out for a 10 year, near light speed trip, to return to their planet 40,000 years later. But something goes wrong and they're forced to return early to a galaxy not quite the same. The book had about 2/3 of the way through. I really liked _The Forever War_ and several of the same characters are back in this one. But the remaining 1/3-1/4 of the books is like one big "Huh?" I can't really speak to it without giving it away, but it seems like Haldeman had set up an intriguing story up to a point and then suddenly realize "Holy cow! Draft due at the publisher...tomorrow!!?? Time to stick a bent fork in this baby, and fast!" For the most part I still enjoyed the book, it was a quick read. But if you aren't a fan of _The Forever War_ just skip this one. BTW, _Forever Peace_ (often called a prequel to _The Forever War_) really has nothing to do with this series.
Rating:
Summary: I can't deny it's memorable.
Review: The only other Joe Haldeman novel I've read is "Forever Peace," which I thoroughly enjoyed. I'm sure I'll pick up "The Forever War" at some point. Even though "Forever Free" is a sequel of sorts to the latter, the stories are not crucially related as far as I can tell. "Forever Free" would have made a pretty decent short story to be published in some collection somewhere. As it stands, it's quite short and still seems like a lot of the text is filler. Too much detail about fishing and construction work, not enough development of ideas. Towards the middle of the book, Haldeman managed to establish a compelling SF mystery that kept me reading. But, as I see many other reviewers have said, the ending "explanation" could have been handled much better. It seemed rushed and flippant. I think it was supposed to be humorous to a degree, but in my humble opinion this tactic backfired. (The funniest part of the novel was an interesting scene involving the Disney character Goofy...you'll have to read it to find out what the heck I'm talking about.) Also the "explanations" for the mysteries of the middle part of the book don't really make sense given the type of powers involved. (Telling you why would give away too much though.) The concept of the "Man" group mind seemed fairly pointless for plot purposes, except to serve as neat SF background premise. More could definitely have been done with the interactions between the "Men" and the normal people of the planet Middle Finger (yes, that's right, that's the name of the planet). Still, after reading "Forever Free" I'm interested enough to learn more about William Mandella, the Taurans, and the Forever War. I'll definitely give Haldeman another shot.
|
