Forever Free

Rating:
Summary: Forever free different, but equally good
Review: I don't see what the big fuss is about. Sure FF is alot different from FW, but what did you expect? FF is about a man's struggle within himself to want to experience the future. In FW, he was just thrown into it. If you didn't like FF, pull your head out of your rear and look deeper. It wasn't supposed to deal with war, just with the FW universe.

Rating:
Summary: Forever Failed
Review: I loved reading Joe Haldeman's seminal science fiction novel Forever War, and I enjoyed his award-winning Forever Peace. I picked up Forever Free with the expectation that this sequel to Forever War would relive the issues of the original novel. I had hoped it would follow up on Haldeman's observations about science, war, sociology, and psychology. Unfortunately, unlike FW and FP, this novel ignored those issues and presented a spiritual side (or at least as close as Haldeman is willing to offer) that the others didn't touch on.

Forever Free picks up several years after William and Marygay settle down on the ice planet Middle Finger. Their self-imposed ghetto separates them from the group minds of Man and Tauran, but their lives are constantly influenced by them as well. They don't like seeing their children grow up in this environment, and it has become clear that they are at a critical moment in history. The veterans old enough to remember the Forever War are getting too old to fight. If they are going to stand up to Man, it has to be soon.

The first half of the book is interesting, even if it seems padded at times. I had enjoyed the descriptions of life on Middle Finger with Man. I liked the conflict between Mandella and his son. I even liked the Man sheriff and the Tauran ambassador, but Haldeman appears to use them as stock figures - when he remembered to mention them at all.

There comes a moment when the book ceases to be about revolution and evolution and becomes something of a whodunit. I disliked this part of the book. Haldeman may not be the best SF writer out there, but FW and FP were based on science. Some of it was hand-waved, but there were always scientific principles behind everything. In Forever Free, Haldeman gives us a mystery in which there should have been a good, scientific answer. Instead, he gives us an answer that is more fantasy than science fiction.

I think Forever Free could have worked better as a shorter piece. If the publisher had removed the blank pages between chapters, I think they would have been hard-pressed to make it a 200-page novel. With some editing (and a better ending), it would have made a nice 100-150 page novella. This was a big disappointment for me.

Rating:
Summary: Some things are best left to the imagination...
Review: .... When the publisher/editor(whomever is responsible) goes against the author and names his previous work, the "Forever Peace", as the sequel to the "Forever War", alarms should automatically sound in one's head. Joe Haldeman, states that the "Forever Peace" is NOT a sequel, right there on the cover of said book! They are related only in that both are drawn from his experiences of the Vietnam War. ....

Rating:
Summary: A sequal and almost equal to the classic Forever War
Review: As a great fan of Joe Haldeman I might be a little biased here. I loved the Forever War, and I read Forever Free with great relish. It is near to equaling the great masterpiece, but the style is different. It is older, wiser, and stranger. I don't quite rate it as high as some of Joe's other books, but I would highly recommend it just the same. You do need to read Forever War first (and believe me everyone should) , and once you do you will *have* to read this book, so go to it.

Rating:
Summary: An interesting continuation in the Forever series.
Review: The story picks up a while after the end of Forever War. The characters are now firmly entrenched in a dead end life and want out.

The first third of the story is them getting out. The second third of the story is what the encounter on the way. The last third of the story is, well, you'll have to judge for yourself, but I was quite surprised at by the ending. The main characters are shown that not only is everything they've ever known wrong, but that the person who has been running the show all along doesn't really understand what's going on, either. In one sense, this can be thought of as a metaphor for what an author might experience when a story takes on a life of its own and does things that are beyond simple writing controls.

Honestly, it gave me the feeling the author has more in mind, as the book's ending didn't really feel like an ending so much as an epiphany.

The Forever War was, really, an astounding novel. Forever Free may, as time passes, be seen in the same light.

Rating:
Summary: If your cat remarked on the cold weather outside...
Review: ...would you offer it tea? Probably not (or at least not until yourheart had remembered to start beating again). But if you were acharacter in this book, you just might.

The above is an exaggeration, but the exemplifies what I find most wrong with this book. Characters tend to "coast" through the rough (intellectual/emotional) spots, or else their reactions are cut short with a quick fade. This tendency approaches silliness by the end of the book....

It might be worth a read but the two previous "Forever" books are much better. END

Rating:
Summary: All about parameters
Review: no guns sf. Interesting about limits of who we are. Only critisms is that three books have forever in there title. Hovever Haldemans concepts are readable and provoking. Read 'war' first before starting on this

Rating:
Summary: A TERRIBLE book by a GREAT writer
Review: I hate to say this, as I'm a huge Haldeman fan (loved Forever Peace) but Forever Free is a terrible book. It can't even rightly be called science fiction, and anyone expecting sf will feel very cheated by the deux-es-machina fantasy ending.

Most of the book is well written, and engaging. But the ending is so bad it spoils the whole experience. It's like, "You know that big mystery you've been trying to figure out? Well forget about it, there's no answer it's just that God made ten billion people disappear and poof now they're back THE END". As if that's not bad enough, a ridiculously non-sequitor Star Trek shape-shifting lifeform is introduced (also in the last ten pages) and actually TELLS you this. What the hell?

Not only isn't it science fiction, it breaks the most basic rules of storytelling, cheating readers by changing all the rules at the last second. It's as if the last twenty pages of the book weren't written by Haldeman at all, but were put in by some first-year creative writing student (the one that didn't pay attention in class).

Want a great Haldeman read? Check out Forever Peace, it's well worth your time and money. Steer well clear of this one though.

Rating:
Summary: Where's Conan?
Review: I kept wondering when Rand and the Aes Sedai were going to come into the story, but then I realized: holy smoke! This isn't a long boring series book where everything that happened in the last one is replayed endlessly, with lots of violence and flashing swords and nothing to challenge the mind. Come on, fellow reviewers, you're embarassing yourselves! If it went over your heads, say so, and get back to reading David Drake and Jerry Pournelle (who I hasten to say are ok in their place). Admit it, you wanted to read about ripe nubile females forced into sweaty dangerous foxholes, and the unshaven men who fight alongside them. You missed the point of FOREVER WAR, too, and now you're confused again. Try something less challenging, and if you don't understand THAT don't use your right name when you post (mine for example is Milton Q. Badcheese). POSSESSION by Byatt mystified me, but I don't go around shaming myself by telling everyone. I think it's generational; this is a book about middle age, like the man said. Maybe the universe IS a sham...

Rating:
Summary: Free of Ideas
Review: Where do you go from up? This seems to be Haldeman's problem. After the astonishing "The Forever War," what do you do for a follow-up?

"Mind Bridge" was wonderful. "Forever Peace" was disappointing. "The Hemmingway Hoax" was incoherent (how did it win any awards?) And now we have "Forever Free," which commits the unforgivable sin of grabbing the reader's attention, and then insulting him with an idiotic and just plain lazy ending. It seems a safe bet that this book was written on an advance from the publisher to a deadline, and Mr. Haldeman just plain ran out of ideas as the deadline approached.

The story starts well and sets-up some interesting plot lines and puzzles, but using "a wild and crazy G-d!" to wrap-up the story is maddeningly cheap and disappointing. And it insults G-d.

I will no longer buy a Haldeman book simply on the author's name.

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