Fai clic su di un'immagine per andare a Google Ricerca Libri.
|
Sto caricando le informazioni... Guardian (2002)di Joe Haldeman
   Nessuno Sto caricando le informazioni...
 Iscriviti per consentire a LibraryThing di scoprire se ti piacerà questo libro. Attualmente non vi sono conversazioni su questo libro.  Dokfintong | Dec 27, 2016 |   I went into GUARDIAN looking to read a sci-fi period piece, but I felt like more this was the story of Rosa and Daniel struggling to settle on their new life with a little sci-fi thrown in towards the end. They are not particularly likable or interesting, and as the book follows them, the reader finds himself wanting to know what will happen to them since the book flashes forward to Rosa still alive as the storyteller in the 1950's. The story was slow, carrying only a modicum of anticipation, and I felt like the twist/ending reveal wasn't quite worth muddling through the first three quarters of the book. I wished GUARDIAN was more than it was for me and I'll admit wanting to try another Joe Haldeman book, although it is mostly because I feel like he has better books out there. A very okay read. Thank you to Open Road, Joe Haldeman, and Netgalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review! (  ) EHoward29 | Dec 19, 2016 | ) rivkat | Dec 6, 2016 | In some ways this is a slight novel; in some ways it's a typical Joe Haldeman novel; in some ways it's a disappointing novel. Haldeman has almost written a weird western here. He gives us a novel mostly set in the 1890s about a woman and her son fleeing the husband who has horribly abused them both. Ultimately, he moves her to another dimension where her son lives. More importantly, the man killed with her son, who she has promised to marry, does not die, and the two have a son who works on the Manhattan Project and figures out a way of building a third atomic bomb which is demonstrated for the Japanese in Tokyo Bay. In some unexplained way, that saves humanity from annihilation in the 1990s. Haldeman is a good, tight writer, and his prose is always a pleasure to read. He often uses first person narrative, and here he pulls it off just fine even though the narrator is a woman and a Christian. The book sort of works as a quick travelogue through the west of striking Pullman workers and Klondike gold rushers and Dodge City after its heyday. But the book is something of a letdown in its speculative content and even, at times, its technique. The narrator, who in her later years makes a living as a pulp writer of, amongst other things, sf and meets Hugo Gernsback, has, at times, the annoying habit of laying on the foreshadowing though I understand that this is to underscore the theme of the consequences of seemingly trivial encounters and events. To be sure, the raven first makes his appearance on page 22 of a 231 page book. However, his nature isn’t revealed until page 164. The raven is named Gordon in memory of Haldeman’s friend, the late sf writer Gordon Dickson, and there are also allusions to Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven” and the Tlingit trickster god of a raven. It seems all too neat that an alien would choose to manifest itself to Christian woman in Philadelphia as a talking raven. And the wonders he shows narrator Rosa Coleman aren’t that interesting even when he says he is the guardian of life and not a life. The aliens he shows are only briefly covered, not at all as interesting as other aliens Haldeman has created in his Confederacion universe. In fact, I think the main trouble with this novel, what makes it a slight book if not a failure, is that it is full of some characteristic Haldeman themes and enthusiasms not indulged in other stories. Camille Flammarion’s sf novel Lumen is explicitly mentioned not only in the story but in Haldeman’s dedication. I get the impression that Haldeman plotted the novel first, found out it somewhat resembled Flammarion’s story, and added the references. However, it could rather be the travels through the universe and sights seen, including a sort of afterlife, were first inspired by Flammarion. Alaska was where Haldeman grew up, and the dedication makes clear his fondness for the state. The metaphysical slightness of Gordon’s journey -- and I don’t think the slightness is due to Haldeman’s terse prose -- reminded me of his failed novel Forever Free which also had god-like aliens interfering in the lives of humans for reasons that don’t resonate on an emotional level and don’t startle intellectually. Understandably, Haldeman, as a sf writer and combat veteran, has been fascinated with the question of violence in human affairs and the future. That certainly shows up in raven’s prophecies about man’s possible destruction. However, the shibboleth that American should have just demonstrated the atomic bomb to the Japanese and they would have quietly surrendered has never been real convincing. I’m not sure if the historical revelations were out when Haldeman wrote this novel, but we know now that the Japanese government, with the exception of the Emperor, wasn’t ready to surrender after Hiroshima and Nagasaki. And the causality of how an a-bomb demonstration avoided nuclear holocaust is missing as well as lacking in plausibility. The hopping between alternate universes is another story element that Haldeman has used elsewhere, perhaps most effectively in his poem “DX”. It also features, in the attention paid Ernest Hemmingway in The Hemmingway as a sort of dark negative to the guardian raven here. In short, I suspect Haldeman wrote this book because he wanted to experiment literarily and do an historical novel with sf elements, and he further combined it with his love of Alaska. The result was a fast, compelling read. But, in the end, it wasn’t a very satisfying read. ( ) RandyStafford | Mar 19, 2014 | Joe Haldeman has often dealt with issues of war and peace--perhaps he is best known for his novel "[b:The Forever War|21611|The Forever War|Joe Haldeman|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1167322714s/21611.jpg|423]". In "Guardian" he tells the story of a woman who is treated brutally, makes a long and remarkable journey, and becomes instrumental in preventing nuclear war. (  ) nmele | Apr 6, 2013 | nessuna recensione | aggiungi una recensione
Menzioni
During the Alaskan gold rush, a woman pursues a destiny that will change the world in this alternate-history novel from a sci-fi legend. In the tradition of Robert Heinlein (Starship Troopers, Stranger in a Strange Land), multiple Hugo and Nebula Award winner Joe Haldeman set a new standard for military science fiction and hard sci-fi with The Forever War and his phenomenal Worlds series. Now the Science Fiction Writers of America Grand Master dabbles brilliantly in alternate-history fiction with the world-altering adventures of a remarkable woman during the gold rush in late nineteenth-century Alaska. Sent from her Georgia home to Philadelphia to escape the carnage of the Civil War, Rosa Coleman studied astronomy and mathematics, ultimately settling into a new life as the wife of a wealthy man and mother of young Daniel. But when she discovers an unforgiveable secret about her reprobate husband, Rosa takes the boy and flees to the West on a desperate escape that takes them from Dodge City to San Francisco one step ahead of the Pinkertons hired to bring them back home. On the run in a strange and exhilarating new world, Rosa and Daniel find a haven where they might never be found: the wilds of Alaska among the dreamers drawn to its magnificent wilderness by the promise of gold. It is here that her spiritual guide first appears to Rosa in the form of a raven--an incarnation of the trickster god of Native American and Eskimo lore--suggesting that her destiny lies not in sparkling riches but in something far greater. This mystical harbinger has come from a distant, alien place, and will set her on an astonishing course . . . A magnificent blending of historical and speculative fiction, Joe Haldeman's Guardian is a breathtaking departure for the author whom Peter Straub calls "one of our most aware, comprehensive, and necessary writers" and David Brin praises as "one of the best prophetic writers of our times." Non sono state trovate descrizioni di biblioteche |
Discussioni correntiNessunoCopertine popolari
 Google Books — Sto caricando le informazioni...GeneriSistema Decimale Melvil (DDC)813.54Literature English (North America) American fiction 20th Century 1945-1999Classificazione LCVotoMedia: (3.35)
Sei tu?Diventa un autore di LibraryThing. |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
1
I received a review copy of "Guardian" by Joe Haldeman (Open Road Integrated Media) through NetGalley.com. (