Camouflage

Rating:
Summary: Babeomorph Riseth
Review: Hot alien babeomorph seduces nerd scientist to get near priceless treasure only to be semi-waylaid by evil billionaire immortal whilst buffeted by the passions of unintended xenoromance.

Good stuff!

Rating:
Summary: More "old Haldeman" - like
Review: I have followed Haldeman's work since I read "The Forever War" about ten years ago. I loved that book, and many of his short stories (available in a few anthologies). But his last few books didn't engage me - I thought "Guardian" moved too slowly, and "The Coming" wasn't my thing.

But this one read like one of Haldeman's best works. I couldn't put it down - I was swept away by all three of the intertwining stories. I'd recommend this for any Haldeman fan. And if you haven't read "The Forever War", why the heck haven't you?

Rating:
Summary: ... plot for a television pilot?
Review: I like Haldeman... well liked anyway.

What could have been a terrific story ends up with lack of depth and is rife with inconsistency in logic and technology. The good news however is that this type of effort draws television production like mice to that which is cheesy.

Rating:
Summary: Quite a Different Pair of Aliens.
Review: Joe Haldeman first achieved fame with The Forever War, a story that won both the Hugo and Nebula awards as the best SiFi book of the year in 1975. This was not long after he returned from Viet Nam where as a draftee he won (as he puts it) "a Purple Heart and other standard medals." That book described a fuzzy kind of war where the fighters hardly knew what was going on (Viet Nam?).

In this book, about his 28th if I've counted correctly, the story is one of two Aliens who have only dim memories of an ancient artifact that has just been brought up from the sea. The human characters are human and very well developed. The aliens are quite different from you've seen in other books.

A delightful read by a master of his craft.

Rating:
Summary: Not bad, not great
Review: Joe Haldeman has written a lot of books in which one of the main characters goes through one or more identity changes. (Off the top of my head, I can think of _Buying Time_, _Tool of the Trade_, and _All My Sins Remembered_.) I suppose it's no surprise that he's done it again. _Camouflage_ uses the idea to raise the question "What does it mean to be human?"--but not answer it.

The book starts out quickly and compellingly: strange alien in the 1930s, strange scientific puzzle in the 2020s. (There's a prefatory section which explains the alien's nature; the book might have been better without it.) Once the 2020s timeline starts investigating the alien artifact, though, that plot thread loses all its steam. A lot of nothing happens, until the end of the book, in which much is explained through a slightly contrived timely revelation.

The "Changeling" alien plotline remains very interesting, particularly to anyone with a taste for history. The other alien, the "Chameleon," is less well-developed. There's a twist at the end, which isn't very surprising.

If this review sounds too tepid for a three-star rating, blame it on the initial excellence of the story. The excitement doesn't carry through to the end, and the book doesn't have a compelling set of characters or a deeply-interesting theme that might carry it through. All the same, it's a pleasantly diverting read from an author who ought to be encouraged to publish more.

Rating:
Summary: Very Enjoyable
Review: Joe Haldeman is a unique voice and innovator in Science Fiction. Each of his novels is a new experiment in the craft of writing. Similar to his changeling protagonist, "Camouflage" represents key elements of his writing style that have evolved over the past several novels and are now combined with his natural ability to weave a compelling tale. The result is an exceptionally well-crafted novel that tells a complex story in as parsimonious manner as possible. Writing in this manner is a tall-order for any author, and a departure from the increasingly long, convoluted science fiction novels that grace the shelves of our bookstores today. His pacing is on-the-money here and helps build a sense of excitement. The result is a wonderful page turner that will leave the Haldeman fan eagerly awaiting his next effort. Haldeman does an exceptional job with this novel.

Rating:
Summary: Not Bad!
Review: Joe Haldeman is one of the top sci-fi writers around. This novel contains three interwoven stories:
1. A sympathetic shape-changer who has lived on earth for millions of years, but only as a human from the 1930's on.
2. An unrelated and malevolent shape-changer who's been around as long as man, whose favorite human is Josef Mengele.
3. A mysterious and impregnable metal artifact dredged up from the ocean floor by a science reasearch team in Samoa, drawing the attention of both aliens.

Thematically, the book is fascinating. The decidedly non-human characters highlight oddities of our behavior we simply take for granted, like courting rituals and various aspects of sexual and romantic love.

The plot, unfortunately, doesn't measure up. JH starts out strong, neatly interweaving the three stories, sweeping through time and setting up a profound mystery with the artifact. But eventually these stories bog down as JH concentrates on a love angle, pretty much dropping the more interesting (to me anyway) exploration of the artifact and the nature of the evil shape-changer. A rather contrived ending ties it all together, but I hope he does a sequel to further develop his intriguing ideas.

Rating:
Summary: Decent Science Fiction, Worth your Time
Review: This book is OK/fun. Only a bit less then 300 pages and only a day or two of reading. I can't rave about it but it is sturdy Science Fiction (a bit more like Clancy-esque fiction in a Sci-Fi setting). Not on the same level as Forever War but it is sturdy enough.... decent Sci Fi is hard to find.


The book presupposes a immortal life-form (two, in
fact) traveled to earth with a ship and slowly forget
who/what they are. The ship/artifact is lost for
millions of years and it isn't until the artifact is
discovered (and publicized) that events start bringing
the aliens together from their different paths (with no
recollection of the other or themselves). A little too
pat in places and events transpire to collide just a
little too quickly but it has a nice quirky ending and
some interesting takes on future society (takes place
primarily @2020). If you liked the author's previous
stuff you will be satisfied.

Camouflage by Joe Haldemen.

Rating:
Summary: Open minded aliens
Review: This was my first book by Haldeman, and I enjoyed it. The story immediately drew me in. I don't usually read books about aliens, usually avoiding anything about outerspace, but this was worth the read. Its opened up my mind to check out more science fiction, with and without more aliens in them. Since reading everyone elses reviews, I'm looking forward to checking out more books by this author especially.

Rating:
Summary: Haldeman's still got it...just
Review: With his last two novels - the very under-rated "The Coming" and his psuedo-alternate history "Guardian" - Joe Haldeman has taken the short but sweet approach to telling his story; a long and winding build-up which leads to the short, sharp ending/twist. I loathe to describe it as an long story or joke with a sharp punchline at the end, but the comparison seems apt. This approach has so far worked for Haldeman due to his strong approach in developing his characters through a time period based narrative. However, in "Camouflage", it seems that Haldeman is starting to get a bit lax.

The year is 2019 and marine biologist Russell Sutton is working in the Pacific with his company that specialises in deep-ocean salvaging (his crew achieved fame through their rising of The Titanic). Russell is approached by Jack, a retired naval officer who enlists him to retrieve a mysterious oval object lying off the coast of Samoa. In the second storyline, we follow the "Changeling", an alien that has been on Earth since the dawn of evolution. Having taken the form of marine animals for most of its time, the Changeling takes on a human form in the 1930's and begins its journey to learn about humans.

The secondary storyline of the alien's development over a period of a century is typical Haldeman - an entertaining memoir like account of events and happenings that brings us in to liking the character. However, problems arise when we jump back to the present with Russell and Jack. These characters are less developed than the Changeling and in the end they come across as one-dimensional characters. It is not a good thing when the alien character appears more human than the humans.

Another problem is Haldeman's idea - the idea of an ancient alien artifact which involves 2 alien species, in a time where humans are ready for such a discovery is not new, but is interesting enough. However, Haldeman does not develop it well enough. It seems like the idea came as an afterthought. The end result is we follow the characters but to where, we do not know. The pace of the novel builds up in intensity like a thriller, but the only mystery we have here is the mystery of whether anything will actually happen.

Haldeman's development of characters is still engaging but here, he has failed to make them of any use. Here, he is failing to develop a proper story, which makes Camouflage seem stale and pointless. Those are two words which I never imagined I would use for a writer which gave the word the powerful novel, "The Forever War". In Camouflage, it seems Haldeman is writing on auto-pilot and following a template.