Scan barcode
A review by arbieroo
World Without End by Joe Haldeman
3.0
This is Joe Haldeman's second Star Trek novel. I haven't read the first, but in the light of this one, I would.
Comparing this to Blish's Star Trek efforts is interesting: Haldeman handles the characters just as well, introduces interesting SF ideas just as deftly and gives some secondary characters more to do than they have in the TV show - which Blish also does. Yet you'd never mistake this for a Blish novel; no plot points hinging on James Joyce or knowledge of molecular biology here. Haldeman manages to dump the crew of the Enterprise in an extra-ordinary pickle. The thing is not whether they will get out of it, you know they will, but how are they going to get out of it? Further, there is more than one source of danger. This always seems to work better. For instance, in the film Alien, a considerable part of the troubles for the Nostromo's crew come not from the Alien but from the android and that is, for me, a considerable factor in why it is widely considered one of the greatest monster movies ever made.
Fun.
Comparing this to Blish's Star Trek efforts is interesting: Haldeman handles the characters just as well, introduces interesting SF ideas just as deftly and gives some secondary characters more to do than they have in the TV show - which Blish also does. Yet you'd never mistake this for a Blish novel; no plot points hinging on James Joyce or knowledge of molecular biology here. Haldeman manages to dump the crew of the Enterprise in an extra-ordinary pickle. The thing is not whether they will get out of it, you know they will, but how are they going to get out of it? Further, there is more than one source of danger. This always seems to work better. For instance, in the film Alien, a considerable part of the troubles for the Nostromo's crew come not from the Alien but from the android and that is, for me, a considerable factor in why it is widely considered one of the greatest monster movies ever made.
Fun.