Too Much To Dream

Hmm... I actually kind of enjoyed it...

Yeah, but did you enjoy it, or did you 'enjoy' it?

I agree with the review - "Forever Free" sucked. "Forever Peace" looked good for several chapters, before it tanked badly (not as badly though). I wish someone would write completely different stories based upon the leading chapters of these books, because the setups are great.

It's a great pity as "Forever War" is an undeniable classic, and I'd like to think Haldeman has another in him.

Craig, I sort of thought The Forever War had a deus ex machina ending. The Kahns -- bad, bad choice of name -- were a trick solution to ending the Tauran War.

Haldeman has some ability, but he consistently commits one of the Big Mistakes of fiction writing: he permits his theme to overwhelm everything else in sight. He introduces plot devices that aren't plausibly compatible with the rest of the plot or the characters enacting it. He lets his characters speak in Kantian categorical imperatives. His fiction progressively deteriorates into nothing but Message.

That's a seductive trap for a writer with Something To Say -- and a fatal one. I know. I've committed it myself, too often to recount.

Ha! I wrote the worst book ever written. That's why it didn't sell. I still have the original manuscript and I read parts of it from time to time.

It really sucks, although I didn't realize that when I wrote it.

At least I FINISHED IT, which most would-be novelists never do.

Right now I am working on the Worst Book Ever Written. We'll see if it sells (if I ever finish it). I'll bet you made the mistake of having your protagonist (that's a fancy word for the hero of the story, you're not supposed to say "hero" or "heroine" anymore for Serious Littrichoor) do things. Characters in Serious Littrichoor don't do things, things are done to them, and they are supposed to sit around and emote about it.

It was a dark and stormy night, eh?

That opening is too refined for me.