The Coming

Well, all those people who have relentlessly beat the "character development" drum...I hope you're happy. Here we have yet another good SF author serving up a book packed with nothing but "character development", and it's boring as hell. No scientific concepts here to speak of, and very little thoughtful extrapolation--just a whole lot of slice-of-life style narration. If I want to immerse myself in the mundane details of average people's lives I CAN DO THAT FOR REAL. No book needed.

This book has no business being listed under the SF category. As for the 5-star reviewers, I suggest you give in and try the romance aisle next time. Really, you'll be happier there. And maybe SF fans can stop seeing their favorite authors write books like this one.

This book is terrible. Not an opinion I give lightly but I have to be honest.
Basically it is a very short story that takes on issues irrelevant to the plot and lets them dominate.
Even as a short story this would not fly as it is so cliched as to be farcical.
Obviously the author was more interested in putting forth implausable political ideas than telling a science fiction based story.
The whole idea of aliens approaching is but the thinnest of backgrounds as oppossed to the main plot as potential readers are led to believe.
The main line deals with a ridiculous blackmail scheme involving a musician and his being gay in an America where homosexuality is a crime akin to child molestation of today. Yet in a world where virtual reality sex is common.
This is one of those books that like those strange movies that appear on HBO you stick with hoping it will get better and the ending will bring everything together but it doesn't. You end up feeling cheated and upset with yourself for having wasted your time.
Do yourself a favor and do not bother with this title. There are far too many other great books out there far more deserving of the attention lavished on this stinker.

"The Coming" is an enjoyable book if simplistic. The book is set in the near future with the Earth recieving a call from outer space 'they' are coming. The reader finds the Earth falling apart from overcrowding and the usual political wars, but not the usual players. The story jumps between various characters with higher or lower interest in the coming.

To me, this book feels like a seventies movie about post apolyptic earth without all of the destruction yet. It is on the brink. Think of a combination of 'The Day the Earth Stood Still' and 'Soylent Green' and you have the feel of this book. It is not a bad book by any means. It is rather enjoyable and a nice easy read. It misses because the reader doesn't have to think about the Earth's situation. Some of his characters also miss. Haldeman places a medical student in the book who also has to perform in porn videos to pay for school. She adds nothing to the story except that the world is not right. He also has the proverbial crazy lady who's character is left hanging in the story. If either one was not added, the story would not have suffered at all. Nice easy read that is enjoyable, but nothing special here.

Maybe I shouldn't be reviewing this book, since I threw it out after reading less than a third. Mr. Haldeman had always been able to tell a great story without resorting to explicit descriptions of sexual acts and repeated crude profanity. I guess he had to use these tactics to disguise the fact that he didn't have any concepts to stimulate scientific speculation. I kept hanging on, hoping it would improve, but it only got worse. If I wanted this kind of drivel, I would just buy the latest best-selling technothriller at Costco. I repeat - I'm very disappointed.

The immediate set-up of this book has a lot of promise. However, when the book itself degenerates into a massively mulitiplayer dialogue, it felt like a fictional account of an election or natural disaster without the luxury of having it play out on TV. I almost get the feeling this was written as a script and repackaged as a short novel. I was less than impressed.

I don't think there is much disagreement that this book is a Turkey. (Other than a sprinkling of gushing praise, probably from the publisher). The more interesting question is "Why?". Other reviewers have advanced various theories. My guess would be either that it was done on a bet or as a joke for us, the great unwashed herd of SF-consumers. In any case, the characters, plot (such as it is), sub-plots, themes, build-up, ending and "science" are a collection of random accidents that go absolutely nowhere. Maybe that's the point? There is a coded message in it somewhere? Or maybe it's the beginning of an entirely new genre and someday will be hailed as an all-time classic: "Plan Haldeman From Outer Space!"

I've loved a number of Haldeman's books and recommended to them both to friends and strangers, so I am sad to say that The Coming just didn't work for me. While there is some nice detail about the near future world, the novel is very local-centric about events and promises a bigger and better payoff than it ultimately delivers. The passing of point-of-view from character to character as they meet and interact is an interesting experiment, but feels artificial at times and, since some of the characters are quite peripheral to the plotline, provides detail about characters that you don't really need to know and don't really care about. Pacing is slow at the beginning, but picks up quite handily near the end, leading to an abrupt and disappointing conclusion. I would suggest you re-read one of Haldeman's classics instead of The Coming. Donald J. Bingle, Author of Forced Conversion.

Joe Haldeman is quite the enigmatic science fiction author. He has the ability to create brilliant narrative, such as "The Forever War", yet still produce disappointing stories like the previously mentioned books sequel "Forever Free" and this book "The Coming". "The Coming" is a quick read with a relatively interesting premise, and given the fact that this book didn't make me angry, uncomfortable, or profoundly disappointed, I will marginally recommend it with three stars. If it were a longer, more involved book, I might be compelled to change that opinion.

"The Coming" focuses on the impact on the scientific community and society in general of a message seemingly from an alien species telling humanity `We're coming' and to be prepared for their arrival on New Year's Day. What enables part of this story to work is that Haldeman does a credible job of representing realistic responses to such an event. The U.S. Government and military want to remove the scientist who discovered this message from the project so that they can take control and exact a military response if necessary (`if necessary' to this government meaning `we're going to attack what we don't understand and we do fear'). There is panic among some segments of society and a variety of conspiracies hatched to thwart the various government plans for responding to this alien greeting or threat. In addition to representing panic, which is a stock sci-fi plot development, Haldeman also focuses on the much larger portion of the population that is enormously intrigued (if not terrified) by this event and are thirsting for any drop of information about `the coming'. One only needs to look back in the past two years with such monumental events as 9/11, Space Shuttle Columbia, and Gulf War: Part Two to realize that this representation by Haldeman is much closer to true reality than any form of panic.

Alas, for all these positive aspects, "The Coming" does have numerous failings that put this book on the fence between a positive or negative recommendation. The first deals with an aspect of Haldeman's writing that pervades all of his novels; that being his insistence on injecting overt sexuality that borders on literary pornography into his stories. In some instances, it works. In "The Forever War", the loosening of tightened morals and rampant promiscuity was used to demonstrate the dramatic change in society and societal values brought about by time and circumstance. While some of the descriptions were graphic, they fit the overall story arc. In "The Coming", the sexuality references seem nothing more than gratuitous eroticism and have little or nothing to do with the plot. One who is not familiar with Haldeman's work might instantly be soured on him by these story elements. Those who are more knowledgeable about his work will expect this, but still find it gratuitous.

The other failing deals with the fact that, despite an enormous buildup to the New Year's Day arrival by these messengers, the payoff is decidedly disappointing. I won't go into detail, because the reader should read it for themselves, but it leaves much to be desired. "The Coming" is not a bad book; it is just not a particularly good one. It certainly has its good moments as well as its not so good ones. At just over 200 pages, though, it's worth checking out.

What is Joe Haldeman's preferred mode? Consider the fate of Otto McGavin, the assassin who ultimately causes the genocide of a race of immortals in "All My Sins Remembered"; William Mandella, a soldier in "The Forever War" and retired veteran in "Forever Free"; the socio-political context of the "Worlds" series; and all the characters in "The Coming."

The pretext of "The Coming" is the approach of an "alien" spaceship that has given three months' advance notice of its arrival. The important thing, though, is the context. The Florida wetlands have been paved over. Ozone depletion forces people to slather themselves with heavy-duty sunblock and has made tattoos the fashion for covering skin-cancer scars. Global warming and the sweltering heat drive everyone into the shade... in late autumn. Sexual nonconformists are outlaws and live in fear of their lives. The city is ruled by organized crime, the state is governed by a religious fanatic, and the country is threatened with extinction at the hands of presidents who are, simply... idiots.

Devout partisans of Presidents Nixon, Reagan and Bush I & II would see Haldeman's novels, if they read them, as pleasant though occasionally annoying stories with incomprehensible protagonists and quaint utopian endings. Others will read them as trenchant and bitter satires where mankind can be saved not by itself but only by alien intervention and, usually, a profound change in human nature.

In "The Coming", Haldeman writes the first chapter with what should be a good set-up for a SF novel. A couple main characters discuss a startling new message received from space. However, as the subsequent chapters follow, each is told from a different character's viewpoint. Yet, none of them contain anything important to the message or even to build the momentum. Contrast that with Haldeman's newer book "Changeling", which focuses on only two viewpoints, and is substantially stronger in maintaining the storyline and reader's interest. The other failing of "The Coming" is that the dialogue of each character is unconvincing in its attempt to fit a stereotype. For example, a janitor uses a heavily dumbed-down vocabulary and is resentful of others. I found these character portrayals to be false, and without a strong SF theme, I decided not to waste my time with this book.

It didn't help that ALL the characters interject their speech with Spanish phrases. I can understand that there is a likelihood more people will speak Spanish as a first or second language in the near future. In this book, EVERYONE (even the middle-aged Americans with non-Spanish names)has the habit to speak English 99% of the time, and then throw in a few "gracias" or "me gusta" etc. The only explanation is that in the author's mind, it will be trendy to throw around little snippets of Spanish phrases no matter what the subject or with whom you're speaking. At best, it's distracting to readers. Take it out, and the book would be stronger. This book shouldn't be in the SF section.