A Separate War and Other Stories - Hardcover

Haldeman, Joe

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0441014070 ISBN 13: 9780441014071

Publisher: Ace Hardcover, 2006

Synopsis

Spanning more than thirty-five years in the writing career of the Hugo and Nebula Award-winning author, a collection of short fiction includes fifteen never-before-collected stories that feature such works as his first sold tale, "Out of Phase"; "A Separate War," with a character from the classic novel The Forever War; and "For White Hill," based on a Shakespeare sonnet. 17,500 first printing.

About this title

About the Author

Joe Haldeman is a Vietnam veteran whose classic novels The Forever War and Forever Peace both have the rare honor of winning the Hugo and Nebula Awards. He has served twice as president of the Science Fiction Writers of America and is currently an adjunct professor teaching writing at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Reviews

A Separate War serves both as an introduction to and partial "best-of" collection of the talented Joe Haldeman, winner of the Hugo and Nebula awards. Thought provoking, entertaining, witty, and subversive, these stories—while outlandish in plot and premise—never fail to focus on humanity's hopes, dreams, and foibles as they play out during wartime. Critics agree that the best stories in the collection include "Out of Phase," "A Separate War," "For White Hill," and "Finding My Shadow," about racism and germ warfare in Boston. A few, including "Diminished Chord" and "Memento Mori," about nanotechnology, felt lightweight in comparison. If by no means complete, Haldeman's latest collection, notes the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, makes "an ample case for his being considered one of science fiction and fantasies' stalwarts for years to come."

Copyright © 2004 Phillips & Nelson Media, Inc.

Old pro Haldeman (Camouflage) has a gift for seeing issues in a sympathetic but dispassionate perspective, as shown by the 15 tales in this collection. How can we live as human beings in an uncaring universe? he asks. The title story returns to the conclusion of the Hugo- and Nebula-winning novel The Forever War as seen by another character, discovering uncomfortable but ultimately encouraging things about our capacity to adapt and endure. Other selections, such as "Finding My Shadow" and "Civil Disobedience," are much bleaker, as they angrily extrapolate trends in American politics and our abuse of the environment. Set on a far future Earth, "For White Hill" is one of the most memorable tragic love stories ever written as SF. While the book includes a few minor pieces, notably two early stories that contain the basis for Camouflage, Haldeman's work is never less than clever and sometimes much more. (Aug.)
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Ever since his Hugo- and Nebula-winning debut novel, The Forever War (1975), Haldeman has racked up trophies and award nominations almost yearly. His last novel, Camouflage (2004), garnered the James Tiptree Award, and the latest collection of his short fiction, encompassing primarily stories from the late 1990s through 2005, includes three recent prizewinners. Drawing on Haldeman's background as a Vietnam vet, many stories feature military themes or battle-driven plots. "A Separate War" resurrects the heroine of Haldeman's first novel, who discovers that not only doesn't the war last forever, but en route to making peace, humans have become a hive-mind species like their former enemy. In "Giza," a group of genetically altered asteroid miners reacts to the discovery of built-in sterility by sending their asteroid on a collision course with Earth. An introduction about developing "those crazy ideas" and an afterword revealing the inspiration for each story should please Haldeman fans as well as aspiring sf writers. Carl Hays
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Edition details

• Publisher: Ace Hardcover
• Publication date: 2006
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0441014070
• ISBN 13: 9780441014071
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 288