Review by Booklist Review
Escapees from a homogenized humanity return to an Earth centuries older than when they left in a companion to Nebula and Hugo winners The Forever War (1974) and Forever Peace (1997). Will Haldeman three-peat?
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
In this long-awaited sequel to The Forever War, Haldeman describes the postwar life of retired soldiers William and Marygay Mandella on the half-frozen planet Middle Finger, where they and other humans have been secluded by the newly evolved, superhuman race of Man. The long war with the Taurans is over and William and company are little more than relics, kept around to provide archaic genes should the Man ever wish to alter their own, cloned near-perfection. Dissatisfied with their stagnant lives, William and his fellow vets steal a starship. They plan to travel so far and fast that time dilation will allow them to return only a decade older but millennia in their world's future. Disaster strikes just days into their voyage, however, when their antimatter engines mysteriously malfunction in direct violation of the laws of physics. Returning home in escape craft, Mandella and his mates discover that everyone on the planet has disappeared, leaving only their clothes behind. Further, all communication with the outside universe has been cut off. Despite a slow start, Haldeman builds considerable tension with the mystery that confronts his human survivors of what appears to be the complete disappearance of not only humanity, but also of Man and the Taurans. Some truly weird events have occurred and Haldeman gives them a genuinely spooky feel. Mandella's laconic narrative, so effective in getting across The Forever War's antiwar message, proves just as effective in this sequel. The novel is weakened, however, by what feels like an overly hasty conclusion, burdened by Haldeman's decision to invoke not one but two deus ex machinae in the book's final chapters. Still, this is a well-written and worthy sequel to one of SF's enduring classics. (Dec.) FYI: Haldeman's The Forever War (1974) and Forever Peace (1997) each won both the Hugo and Nebula awards for best SF novel. (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
In the aftermath of the Forever War, a group of combat veterans living on the distant planet of Middle Finger decide to sever their ties with the group-minded genetically identical society of "Man." Commandeering an anti-matter driven spaceship, they begin a journey beyond the Galaxy, where they confront a mystery that eventually brings them into confrontation with the greatest mystery of their existence. The author of The Forever War and Forever Peace continues his exploration of the essential nature of humanity in a deceptively simple story that questions the foundations of human belief. Haldeman's clear, concise storytelling and his understanding of human behavior make his latest effort a strong addition to most sf collections. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Belated, and truly terrible, sequel to Haldeman's classic military SF yarn, The Forever War (1974). Following the war with the Taurans, humanity has become Man, a group-minded race of clones who commune with the One Tree on Earth. The few old-style humans who decline to be linked have been exiled to the cold, dismal planet Middle Finger, where Man keeps them like zoo animals as a source of genetic variation. Bored and frustrated, Forever War veteran and narrator William Mandella, his wife Marygay, and others propose to take 150 fellow dissidents on a round-trip starship voyage at relativistic velocities. For them, only 10 years will pass, but they'll return 40,000 years later when, hopefully, both Man and their Tauran pals will be gone. Man, prodded by the Taurans, rejects the proposal, so William and friends hijack the starship. When their antimatter fuel inexplicably vanishes, however, they're forced to return to Middle Finger, where 24 years have passed and everybody's vanished'right out of their clothes! A nearby Tauran planet is also ominously silent, so they head for Earth. It's deserted too. At Disney World they meet the Omnis, immortal shape-shifters who've always been around undetected and know lots of stuff but claim they're not responsible for the disappearances. People explode, Omnis explode. What's going on? Well, see, God's a mad scientist, and . . . . There have been bigger publishing disasters but not many. Somebody at Ace should have scotched this wretched farrago while it was still just a gleam in the author's eye.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
