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bennought's review
3.0
This book has a lot of potential. The basic concepts, and each individual section of the story are all quite fantastic. A subliminally trained super-spy for an intergalactic confederation is capable of assuming the persona of various persons in order to infiltrate organizations. The story follows this man as he progresses through various missions, including psychological debriefings interspersed throughout. Each mission is incredibly interesting--they get more so as you go on, in fact--and it's fascinating to see how the true persona of the main character is subjugated and, eventually, destroyed. However, the breaking up of the whole book into these mini-episodes feels a bit stilted, and I honestly was left wanting to know more about each one. I get that the point of the book was more to show the main character's realization of the corrupt nature of the Confederation, and his own complete loss of self and identity; but the flow of the story from each episode to the next wasn't smooth enough, and each episode should have been fleshed out a bit more. It's not a very long book, so taking the time to build up each mission would not, in my opinion, have been prohibitive to its publication. Rather, it would allow the reader to get a greater grasp of the *other* characters involved, as well as to get a better grip on these varied worlds. I'd give this book 5 stars if it weren't for these issues; and I'm sorely tempted to push it up to 4 stars, just because it is still a very fun, interesting, and thought-provoking read.
gggggggg_g's review against another edition
3.0
The novel is three novellas, really, interspersed with interviews of the main character, Otto McGavin. Otto is a trained military operative who ensures planetary safety from economic abuse, potential genocide, etc. You experience Otto's descent into denial and madness through the interludes and the third story, the only one not previously published in Galaxy, is the real star of the show. I liked it as a conceptual novel, yet lacked the conviction that I should care about Otto.
bigenk's review against another edition
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
Otto McGavin is a young spiritual pacifist who comes under the employ of the 'Confederación', a galactic 'peace-keeping' organization. After lengthy training under hypnosis, he discovers that his role is not what he thought it would be, and is instead going to be used as both a spy and assassin, something that they call a 'prime operator'. Technology and espionage have advanced to such a degree that Otto will be physically and mentally altered into a near identical copy of a person of interest, and then inserted into the mission as seamlessly as possible. The book itself is a series of short story vignettes describing various missions that Otto is dispatched on, with interstitial material of interviews that Otto's handlers have with him at various points in his life.
As time progresses and Otto begins to be worn to the bone by the machinery of corrupt and unethical government, we begin to see the cracks forming that will ultimately destroy him. Haldeman, a Vietnam veteran, uses Otto's story as a fairly venomous analogy for the American military complex and foreign policy overreach. I've yet to read Haldeman's more famous work, The Forever War, but I've gathered that it has a similar message, a message that is unfortunately still very much relevant almost 50 years later.
The primary fault here is the unevenness of the writing quality. The first two short stories, written as such in magazines in 1971 and 1974, read more as pulpy spy thrillers than anything of real importance, the only connection between them being Otto himself. The quality improves drastically with the concluding story, which ended up saving the novel from from being yet another mediocre fix-up. The last story, and the interstitial interviews, do a much better job of deepening the character of Otto, giving the reader a broader context of the bureau that he works for, and clarifying the message the Haldeman has. Unfortunately, it's just not enough to make the novel great. The final product doesn't feel cohesive as a whole. The book also has a pretty big case of characters delivering long chunks of exposition while having one or two glasses of bourbon, which I've been seeing more and more of in these older SF stories. Weird that there's ALWAYS a booze bar no matter what backwater planet you end up on.
That being said, it was a decent read. There's a lot of dark and gritty content that I thought was written in a mature fashion, and decent pace that kept things interesting. The final story has some really interesting aliens that live on a system with a star that goes through periods of decay and activity. These aliens are essential immortal, having no way to reproduce, but go through a process of rejuvenation during their star's period of decay. Cool stuff. I look forward to reading The Forever War and seeing what Haldeman is like at his best.
As time progresses and Otto begins to be worn to the bone by the machinery of corrupt and unethical government, we begin to see the cracks forming that will ultimately destroy him. Haldeman, a Vietnam veteran, uses Otto's story as a fairly venomous analogy for the American military complex and foreign policy overreach. I've yet to read Haldeman's more famous work, The Forever War, but I've gathered that it has a similar message, a message that is unfortunately still very much relevant almost 50 years later.
The primary fault here is the unevenness of the writing quality. The first two short stories, written as such in magazines in 1971 and 1974, read more as pulpy spy thrillers than anything of real importance, the only connection between them being Otto himself. The quality improves drastically with the concluding story, which ended up saving the novel from from being yet another mediocre fix-up. The last story, and the interstitial interviews, do a much better job of deepening the character of Otto, giving the reader a broader context of the bureau that he works for, and clarifying the message the Haldeman has. Unfortunately, it's just not enough to make the novel great. The final product doesn't feel cohesive as a whole. The book also has a pretty big case of characters delivering long chunks of exposition while having one or two glasses of bourbon, which I've been seeing more and more of in these older SF stories. Weird that there's ALWAYS a booze bar no matter what backwater planet you end up on.
That being said, it was a decent read. There's a lot of dark and gritty content that I thought was written in a mature fashion, and decent pace that kept things interesting. The final story has some really interesting aliens that live on a system with a star that goes through periods of decay and activity. These aliens are essential immortal, having no way to reproduce, but go through a process of rejuvenation during their star's period of decay. Cool stuff. I look forward to reading The Forever War and seeing what Haldeman is like at his best.
pptphile's review
adventurous
dark
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
nedens's review against another edition
dark
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
sfwordsofwonder's review
4.0
Check out my full video review HERE.
Imaginative set of short stories, stitched together to create a wonderfully sad, insightful tale.
Imaginative set of short stories, stitched together to create a wonderfully sad, insightful tale.
morepagesplease's review
3.0
This was an interesting read. As short stories it works very well, but as a novel the flow felt off to me. I suppose the abrupt stops and starts I experienced were supposed to approximate the experiences of Otto as he awoke constantly in new places and new bodies. This was a fascinating premise, but I don't think the novel really fully explored it.
haramis's review
4.0
I didn't read this all too quickly because I usually only read ebooks when I'm stuck somewhere I don't have a physical book and audio isn't appropriate. I finally just sat down on Saturday to deliberately read the second half. This was an interesting book; I didn't like reading it. Otto McGavin does some truly horrible things in his service to the Confederación, and many of them were things I did not want to read about, but the book is intentionally building to what is a gutting conclusion, so I loved this book for its knockout ending, and I would probably read the last section, "Episode: All My Sins Remembered," again, but I don't know if I'd want to reread it in full.