Publisher Pyr Books has released the first three chapters in science fiction writer Paul McAuley‘s new space opera The Quiet War for free on its site.

The book has received mixed reviews since it was first published internationally in late 2008; it appears to be in the throes of being published in the US this month with a new and significantly more interesting cover.

Its blurb states that it is set in the twenty-third century, where Earth has been ravaged by climate change and the moons of Jupiter and Saturn are inhabited by the Outers, descendants of refugees who have escaped from Earth and genertically modified themselves. And of course, the two branches of the human race are edging towards war.

Strange Horizons writes:

“… between the flatness of its narrative and the predictability of its characters, there’s not much to feel passionate about in The Quiet War, and for the first part in a series this may be a fatal flaw … ince the story itself is not much more than enjoyable, I for one don’t feel any compulsion to read the next chapter. I’m not sorry to have read The Quiet War — in fact, on the whole, I’m quite pleased to have done so—but neither will I make an extra effort to seek out its conclusion.”

However, The SF Site praised the book, stating it breaks much of the rules of war novels and is a “vivid” read. UK newspaper The Guardian wrote: “After a slow start, the novel picks up pace to present a future that is wondrous yet marred by human frailty.”

54-year-old McAuley has written quite a few books since his debut, Four Hundred Billion Stars, won the Phillip K. Dick Award in 1988. Since that time, he has picked up several other major science fiction and fantasy awards. Science fiction and futurist site io9 has also picked The Quiet War as the first book in its sci-fi book club.

Commentary
I read the first three chapters of The Quiet War on Pyr’s site and I can’t say I was that impressed.

The first thing that I thought about the book’s opening sections was how much they reminded me of Joe Haldeman‘s military work, found in such books as The Forever War and Forever Peace. You get much of the same attention to detail, strung through with a slightly satirical commentary from the author about the military structures and training he is describing.

But perhaps two things struck me as different.

Firstly, it didn’t seem to me as though McAuley understood the youthful naivity and enthusiasm for war; and it’s associated demons, sex and money, as much as Haldeman does. There’s an honesty and naivity to Haldeman’s characters; thus far it seems as though McAuley’s characters are just pawns in his hands.

Secondly I think Haldeman’s underlying commentary is much more subtle. Anyone could pick up the between-the-lines points that McAuley made in these first three chapters, and in many ways they were just the obvious points to be made about the military.

Can I judge the book after only reading three chapters? Of course not, and you should go and read them for yourselves, as well as the complete reviews, before you make a decision about The Quiet War. But personally I suspect there is a reason the book is being issued in the US with a new, much sexier cover a year after it first came out.

Its reception may have been a little too … quiet.

Joe Haldeman, credit: Mikko Aarnio

The health of award-winning science fiction author Joe Haldeman is holding stable after he was hospitalised last week for a twisted bowel and severe pancreatitis, according to updates posted online by his wife.

Haldeman subsequently had to go through urgent surgery and is currently recovering. The update posted by Gay Haldeman on the SFF.net forums reads:

“Joe still has a high fever, though not as high as yesterday. He’s off the cold bed again. Still in ICU, still on the ventilator. I hope to talk to some doctors today. All other signs seem to be holding stable. He is responding to the nurses commands–”Squeeze my hand. Open your eyes.” I think they bring him up to almost consciousness, then let him go back down.”

Best wishes for the ill author continue to pour in from fans on the forums and on other sites.

Haldeman is 66 years old and is best known for his 1976 novel The Forever War, which won both the Hugo and Nebula Awards, although he has published many more books since, including Forever Peace, which although not a direct sequel, has some similarities to The Forever War, and also won both the Nebula and Hugo Awards. His most recent book is 2008′s Marsbound, which Keeping the Door reviewed here.

Joe Haldeman, credit: Mikko Aarnio

Award-winning science fiction author Joe Haldeman was hospitalised this week for a twisted bowel and has severe pancreatitis, his wife has revealed.

Posting on the SFF.net forums, Gay Haldeman first revealed the bad news several days ago on 22 September, saying the author had had “pretty extensive surgery” in Cincinnati in the US after having bad abdominal pains. Haldeman was in the intensive care unit (ICU), his wife revealed, “doing well, but not yet out of the woods”.

Yesterday, on 23 September, Gay Haldeman posted her husband was still in the ICU unit and “critically stable”. Further details:

“The surgeon just told me that Joe’s blood count was coming down and the pancreatic enzymes were better than yesterday. Lab stuff looks better. He’s still running a fever of about 102 that doesn’t want to come down. He’ll probably be on the respirator for a few more days to rest and recover. His bowel has begun working, one of the serious hurdles for this kind of surgery. He’s getting IV nutrition and they’re keeping him sedated (yay).”

Further details are available on the SFF.net forum thread created for discussing Haldeman’s health. Some fellow authors, such as Vonda N. Macintyre, have posted wishing Haldeman and his wife the best.

Haldeman is 66 years old and is best known for his 1976 novel The Forever War, which won both the Hugo and Nebula Awards, although he has published many more books since, including Forever Peace, which although not a direct sequel, has some similarities to The Forever War, and also won both the Nebula and Hugo Awards. His most recent book is 2008′s Marsbound, which Keeping the Door reviewed here.

Commentary
This sort of event is never pleasant in anybody’s life, and I wishes to pass on my best wishes to Haldeman and his family. I hope they realise how many lives Haldeman’s work has affected and how many fans are wishing him well.

Joe Haldeman‘s Marsbound can best be compared to the pop music of an idol like Britney Spears. It’s an easy and comfortable journey, but ultimately leaves the reader feeling unsatisfied due to its lack of deeper substance, real human emotion and complex ideas.

The book represents an unrealistic coming of age tale set in the context of a trite first contact experience with human-like aliens found on Mars. Its genderless main character and the holes found within its entirely predictable plot will leave many science fiction fans wondering what happened to the great science fiction author who penned The Forever War thirty years ago.

The main character of Marsbound is Carmen Dula, a 19-year-old who gets dragged along as her scientist parents join one of the first groups to make the still-risky trip to the great red planet for several years of habitation and research based in a semi-permanent facility humans have managed to erect there. First port of call for the Dula family is the Galapagos Islands, where Dula, her parents, and her annoying little brother Card are scheduled to ride a space elevator up to an orbiting space station.

Much of the information Dula relates from the first person perspective allocated to her by Haldeman are mundane, yet ultimately the sort of details that people will be fascinated with when emigration to space and other planets starts to become a reality.

For example, what sort of food do the travellers have available to them (generally it’s poor stuff, and all water is recycled; Dula ruminates to herself that all of the water has passed through her annoying brother Card several times), what sort of entertainment do they have (virtual reality technology is quite advanced), and what are the shower facilities like (bad)?

Dula also puts a high level of importance on the relationships of the various men and women around her; she has the late-teenager interest in sex and evaluates the young men in her life in terms of potential partnerships with them. With a 19-year-old female protagonist from the United States, it’s no surprise that she will eventually find love interests, engage in what we humanoids refer to as “sex” and so on.

But of course, as the book’s blurb aludes to, the humans who are taking the first, oxygen-hoarding steps in colonising Mars are shortly to discover they are not alone on the planet. An excursion beyond humanity’s facility leads to an accident, and the young Dula is rescued by an angel: “An angel with too many arms and legs, a head that looks like a potato gone bad — and a message for the newly arrived inhabitants of Mars: We were here first.”

Sound like an interesting read so far? You could assume so. The intricacies of Dula’s life as a relatively normal young adult thrust into humanity’s race to conquer Mars are fascinating, and Haldeman has clearly thought through many of the logistical problems humans will eventually face when we inevitably attempt to do so. His style of writing is comfortable and you’ll find yourself relatively absorbed while you’re turning pages and wondering … what exactly is it like to have sex in lower gravity?

However, that’s about all Marsbound has going for it. Haldeman fails abundantly in his attempts to either meaningfully develop Dula’s character or to provide an exciting plot for her to operate in.

Young adults grow, develop and change at an extremely rapid pace; especially as they are exposed to more older peers and role models, and they develop the sexual side of their lives and a sophisticated world view. They are not static, reasonable people, able to calmly and rationally accept every challenge thrown at them. And the different sexes, of course, have entirely different challenges and approaches to meeting them.

Joe Haldeman, credit: Mikko Aarnio

Yet this is how the mid-60′s Haldeman portrays the 19-year-old Dula. And for all the insight that is given into her female nature, she might as well have been male. Worse, most of the other characters are simply forgettable cardboard cut-outs.

Haldeman pairs this lack of character development with an entirely predictable first contact plot that contains all the elements of the traditional first contact science fiction tale; but without any of the excitement and alien-ness that is so fundamental to this type of story.

Remember Heinlein‘s Stranger from a Strange Land? Remember how you felt after the final climactic, mind-bending scene, how the book make you question what ways of thinking were essentially human, and which could be moulded, changed, developed, under the influence of an alien intelligence? Or what about the slowly developing and completely alien world contained in Arthur C. Clarke‘s Rendezvous with Rama, that you didn’t really understand even by the end of the book?

Yup. None of that grandeur here. Marsbound‘s “aliens” are as rational, reasonable and ultimately as boring as Dula herself.

Now it would be easy to say that Haldeman’s getting old — he’s been writing for more than 30 years. However it’s important to remember that the author won both the Nebula and Hugo awards back for his 1997 novel Forever Peace, and he appears to have been pumping out books regularly since then; about one a year, according to Wikipedia.

No, my theory is that Haldeman has actually underestimated the complexity of the first contact genre he undertook in Marsbound, given that much of his previous best work has been focused on the military science fiction sub-genre, informed very much by his own experiences in the Vietnam War. Then too, you could make an argument that his approach to the 19-year-old Dula didn’t ring right due to the age factor.

The cover of the paperback copy of Marsbound that I reviewed contains a quote from Stephen King. “If there was a Fort Knox for the science fiction writers who really matter, we’d have to lock Haldeman up there,” says King. Personally, I hope Haldeman can break his writing out of the chains he appears to have imposed on it and challenge himself and the readers once more for his next effort.