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Somewhat juvenile-including Yogi Bear's future relatives on steroids and a holographic Jesus. Appallingly bad.hard to believe this is the same guy who wrote The Forever War.To his credit, Haldeman keeps things moving-it's mercifully short. Obviously meant to be tongue in cheek, but I expected more from Haldeman-even one thought provoking idea would have sufficed. If one were to delete the drug and sex references, this novel could easily been marketed at one of those middle school book fairs.
A fantastically thought-provoking and exciting premise, but the devil's in the details; everything after the initial set-up is a disappointment that could just as well have been arbitrarily created by a child, especially the ending. I was worried for a while that this would turn into a piece of religious crud on the level of Left Behind, but fortunately at least he turned out to not actually be Jesus, speaking to them across the depths of time and space, but indeed an advanced time traveler.This book also employs my absolute most detested type of ending (spoiler warning - skip the rest of this paragraph if you actually want to read this book after reading my words of disgust). Just like them giving up the power and that sphere taking off in Sphere.Add to that some things I'd rather not read in my science fiction, thank you very much (Some things that would NEVER appear in golden-age sci-fi for instance, and is unfortunately becoming increasingly popular as standards slide from Victorian to acceptable to total trash. The "happily ever after with too much information" ending, I'd have to call it. That was the whole reason for the story progressing. Any good ending to a book like this either has the heroes die bravely and honorably in the act of saving the universe, or is left setting up a sequel. Who would be appointed for this role, since they wouldn't know until he was the right age and the time to do it was near, what this appointed person would look like.
It doesn't matter if a sequel never actually comes, but it should always be SET UP for a sequel as if it was going to come. Fictional characters are innately more pure than real people, so you don't need to go contaminating them with eventualities of the real thing. This sucker did the worst possible thing. Or it least it should be too annoying for most adults.
Of all the plot devices in the history of literature, it may be, it just may be, that having advanced time travelers choosing to make contact with an atheist non-practicing Jew by assuming the form of Jesus, is the stupidest one ever conceived. That was the WHOLE REASON for his believing that he would eventually find a way to make it back to the past. That was the whole reason for him continuing to go forward. That's a pretty big loose end if you ask me.So like I said in the title of this review, this is the sort of thing Michael Crichton might have come up with. What was all that about his earlier self coming back to the 2050s to bail himself out with the million dollars and the instructions to "get in the car and go". I can certainly imagine lonely housewives would go for this book, and "go" for the main character especially), and we have a loser that's inappropriate for children and too annoying for most adults. The "and they all lived happily ever after until they all got old and they all died of old age" ending. Is "Joe" Haldeman really a man or is this one of those cases where a woman uses a pen-name - like Andre Norton - so that people will take her more seriously.
It killed off the characters in the worst way, AND it left loose ends. What, did his self in 1969 leave instructions in his will that someone who kind of looks like he did when he was young would give the million dollars to the law firm at such and such time and place with such and such instructions. Andre Norton at least played the part well. But considering what's on television, I maybe shouldn't overestimate how discerning most adults are.
I cruised through this book. It didn't waste any time getting going and kept my interest to the end. Make no mistakes.this isn't the deepest scifi book you'll ever read but -- well -- it's the book equivalent of chuggable beer. It's good.
Haldeman spends considerable time building a world where a slacker lab assistant invents a time machine. This book is not Haldeman's finest. If you go in expecting another book as good as The Forever War you are going to be quite disappointed. Sounds like a great setup for a book. Still, Haldeman's worst is better than most author's best so don't let me scare you off. Time Machine is a good quick read for a day at the beach and not much more. but the rest of the book really doesn't deliver. Oh well, not the worst I've ever read.
I've read and enjoyed some of Joe Haldeman's earlier work so I was excited about this one, but ultimately disappointed. It read like an outline of an actual good novel -- the bones were there but nothing was fleshed out after the first few chapters. Character development dropped off in the middle, and it's difficult for things to have impact when they whizz by so quickly. The ending was lackluster, largely because you don't end up caring about any of the characters.The most disappointing thing is that it feels as if there's a good book lurking in there, a few drafts after this one, it's just unfortunately not what was actually published.
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