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Category Archives: SciFi

Joe Haldeman – Camouflage Review

August 30, 2012 Dr. Monstrosity No comments

Joe Haldeman - Camouflage (2004) Book Review

Joe Haldeman is one of my favorites. Reading one of his books is like putting on an old well-worn pair of sneakers, it’s familiar and feels great. I love Haldeman’s style, no words wasted. His prose is terse, not flowery. His writing focuses on action, with a minimum of description. He’s a plot driven writer and expects the reader to fill in all the details. With a Haldeman book you know you won’t be wading through a lot of wasted words; but you’re still going to get well drawn characters and a satisfying plot. And ideas. Interesting ideas. Haldeman is an original. His early novels helped define science fiction and an old idea in his hands feels fresh and exciting.

Joe Haldeman

Two of my favorites from Haldeman are his non sf books: War Year and 1968. Both are Vietnam era stories written by a guy who was actually there. They are both unflinchingly brilliant. As far as his science fiction goes he’s written a slew of great ones. Of course the classic The Forever War comes to mind; but I am also a huge fan of the Worlds trilogy, Mindbridge, Buying Time, and All My Sins Remembered not to mention all of his short story collections. Camouflage is another terrific one; it even won the Nebula for best novel in 2005 which means some other people liked it too.

Camouflage is an interestingly structured novel with parallel story arcs taking place in different timelines that eventually meet up. The main character is a shape shifting life form that can emulate just about anything animate or inanimate as subtly suggested by the title. Its origins are somewhat vague as is its gender. We meet this changeling in the early 1930s and stay with him for a good many years; apparently he never gets old. In fact he’s been around since way before the thirties. In another timeline we follow a group of scientists who have discovered a strange artifact deep in the ocean. This future timeline is definitely the weaker story arc and its characters are pretty flimsy. In fact they’re not the least bit interesting until the changeling comes along and starts interacting with them. The changeling is the real meaty character in this novel and his development is very interesting to read. To say any more would spoil things, but I can tell you the ending, although abrupt, is a panoply of weird violence and ultimately leaves you with a smile.

Add another Haldeman novel to his list of enjoyable, thought provoking books. My good old Haldeman sneakers: dependable, functional, smart, fun, no frills, and they still feel warm and fuzzy when I put them on.

Sleepless Nights with Harlan Ellison

August 04, 2012 Dr. Monstrosity 3 Comments

Harlan Ellison - Sleepless Nights from the Procrustean Bed (1984) Book Review

It’s almost like there’s nothing Harlan Ellison can write about and not be entertaining. I’m sure he could write an essay on house painting or crocheting that was both immensely readable and compelling. In Sleepless Nights from the Procrustean Bed, he belts out masterful essays on speculative fiction, his eulogy for his mother, Steve McQueen, and dating services, and more; all entertaining and captivating.

Sleepless Nights from the Procrustean Bed is a collection of Harlan’s essays written in the 1960s, 70s and 80s. Procrustean, not a word you hear every day; it means designed to produce strict conformity by ruthless or arbitrary means. A fitting word because the mighty Harlan is anything but a conformist and nothing if not ruthless. He might make you conform to his line of thought though. The guy is convincing. He pulls no punches. He will bludgeon you but you may learn a thing or two.

So many topics for Harlan to froth about. It’s fun to listen to him rail away against television and video games. At first you think it’s going to be some curmudgeonly diatribe out of touch with the youth and not with the times. Well it is a curmudgeonly diatribe, but oh so full of verve and fire. I may not agree with all of Harlan’s points, but I am never bored by him.

Harlan can attack like an angry pit bull, which is always fun to read; but he can shift gears and deliver heartfelt poignancy exemplified by his essay about his mother’s funeral and his family relationship struggles. And his piece on video dating shows a great respect for women.

Harlan Ellison

He astutely cuts to the heart of Steve McQueen’s character in his essay Centerpunching; and makes you a bigger McQueen fan. His essay Fear Not Your Enemies, a call for stronger gun control laws, written right after John Lennon’s murder, is especially germane today given our current headlines. His writing on sci fi fandom is legendary and always welcome. And his passion and activism for the arts are evident here as well. Harlan is a writer; yes he’s got a sack full of Hugo and Nebula awards, but the guy can write about any topic and it will be something worth reading.

This book reminds me that I want to read all of Harlan’s books.

The Shrinking Man Remains Huge

June 19, 2012 Dr. Monstrosity 5 Comments

The Shrinking Man (1956)
by Richard Matheson

Richard Matheson’s first short story was published in 1950 and his first novel in 1953. The classic I am Legend was published in 1954. The Shrinking Man was his fourth novel and was published in 1956. After I am Legend, he was staying in a house on Sound Beach Long Island and he would write in the basement. That basement ended up being the setting for The Shrinking Man. The novel quickly drew interest from movie studios and ended up being Matheson’s gateway to screenwriting. When the movie rights to The Shrinking Man were purchased, Matheson wisely stipulated that part of the deal was that he be allowed to write the screenplay. The result was one the best science fiction films of the 1950s, exaggeratedly titled, not by Matheson, The Incredible Shrinking Man.

Richard Matheson

Although the idea of a miniature person was not new in science fiction or in Hollywood film, Matheson’s idea of a man that is slowly shrinking day by day is a brilliant one. The novel starts off with a bang. Our hero Scott Carey is already as small as an insect and about to become a meal for a black widow spider. Carey’s battle with the spider is an ongoing conflict throughout the novel; his evolution through shrinking is told in flashbacks.

The Shrinking Man is packed with memorable scenes. As you would expect there are passages of nail-biting excitement. The spider scenes are masterful; tense and scary. And the passages of his interaction with full sized humans are vivid and nerve-wracking. More surprisingly however, The Shrinking Man is rife with heartbreak. His crumbling relationship with his family is heavy with pathos. Matheson takes us inside Carey’s head and we feel his pain, depression, and frustration. The novel’s ending is pure genius as well.

The novel is not without its faults however. I felt some of the scenes of Carey’s plight in his basement prison could have been trimmed; I found them a bit tedious. Too much mechanical description of climbing. And Carey’s repeated questioning of why he even continues at all with his struggle is overdone and makes him appear perhaps too weak. Still, The Shrinking Man is a harrowing tale that will paint indelible pictures in your mind and take you on an emotional and traumatic adventure. Coupled with its dazzling film adaptation which was entirely brilliant, it’s a story that was monolithic in the 50s and remains an icon in science fiction today.