Helpful Score: 2
There is a old saying in service industries. A person who has had a bad experience will tell five people and a person who has had a good experience will tell one. I am afraid my reviews are demonstrating that pattern and I will make an effort to praise the good ones in the future. Unfortunately The Coming is the subject of this review and praise would be dishonest.
I did find his heavy use of dialog without relying on description to bridge challenging and interesting. I could not tell if the frequent peppering of Spanish phrases in the dialog was a prediction of a new expression of a multicultural future or an attempt to give us the local flavor of Gainesville Florida. The story was original although in the end it expressed every boys fantasy about time travel.
This book easily could have been titled, Revenge of the Gay Nerds. I have no doubt that Mr. Haldeman was excluded from the cool crowd and now he is getting his revenge. There is a graphic description of heterosexual porn and a one dimensional character who is in no way connected to the story. There is a more sympathetic portrayal of homosexual sex fantasy which would not be noticeable except for the contrast.
Haldeman also hates politicians. His politicians are stupid, people are sheep conceit is familiar to any one who reads bad military action novels and just as enjoyable when the only intelligent people are scientist.
I chose this book based on the fact that he was a Hugo and Nebula award winner.I have never been disappointed with a book having those distinctions. I assume that Forever Free must be a vastly superior work but the thought of investing several more hours of my life with this immature man makes me cringe.
I did find his heavy use of dialog without relying on description to bridge challenging and interesting. I could not tell if the frequent peppering of Spanish phrases in the dialog was a prediction of a new expression of a multicultural future or an attempt to give us the local flavor of Gainesville Florida. The story was original although in the end it expressed every boys fantasy about time travel.
This book easily could have been titled, Revenge of the Gay Nerds. I have no doubt that Mr. Haldeman was excluded from the cool crowd and now he is getting his revenge. There is a graphic description of heterosexual porn and a one dimensional character who is in no way connected to the story. There is a more sympathetic portrayal of homosexual sex fantasy which would not be noticeable except for the contrast.
Haldeman also hates politicians. His politicians are stupid, people are sheep conceit is familiar to any one who reads bad military action novels and just as enjoyable when the only intelligent people are scientist.
I chose this book based on the fact that he was a Hugo and Nebula award winner.I have never been disappointed with a book having those distinctions. I assume that Forever Free must be a vastly superior work but the thought of investing several more hours of my life with this immature man makes me cringe.
It got me through a longgg snowy night....
The fact that I completed reading this book is probably only due to the fact that it takes places in Gainesville, Florida, where I live. Otherwise, I would have chucked it about half-way through.
The sections on the International Institute for Sexual Research were a joke and totally unnecessary to the book. It was a irony that immediately after the first mention of the 'Institute,' the next sentence was "What a joke."
The sections on the International Institute for Sexual Research were a joke and totally unnecessary to the book. It was a irony that immediately after the first mention of the 'Institute,' the next sentence was "What a joke."
I just had to keep reading to get to the ending. It was definitely not what I expected. Well worth reading. Astronomy professor gets a message from space that seems to portend the arrival of extraterrestrial visitors. According to her calculations, whoever is coming will arrive in 3 months - on New Year's Day, to be exact.
Solid hard SF
Hated it with a passion!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
