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Guardian
by Joe Haldeman
(Ace, 231 pages, hardcover, $23; December 2002; ISBN: 0-441-00977-8.)
This interestingly-offbeat sort-of-SF  novel
starts off as a late 19th century memoir, 'as written by' the protag-lady
circa 1952. Rosa Coleman moves to Kansas to escape an abusive husband,
then moves on to Alaska when the brute find out she's in Dodge City
-- a town Haldeman picked, no doubt, with malice aforethought [note
1]. The 'memoir' is well-researched and pretty good, but has no
special sfnal frisson until Rosa is led on a galactic fantasy-tour by
an Alien Guardian disguised as a Tlingit Raven shaman... [note
2]
It wouldn't be fair to reveal how Raven got involved, so let's just
say that many-worlds is the law in this universe, with interesting consequences.
Haldeman's writing is as good as ever (a relief after Forever Peace),
and the galactic-tourist scenes with Raven and Rosa are as thrilling
and strange as the encounters with the weird continuity-guardian in
The Hemingway Hoax [note 3] -- high praise indeed.
The spirit-guardian out-of-body trip leader was a pretty common conceit
in 19th century proto-sf, and Haldeman specifically identifies a Flammarion
novel [note 4] as a parallel work to his. A somewhat
similar book, that ordinary readers may have actually read, is Lindsay's
Voyage to Arcturus. Personally, I would have preferred more galaxy-touring
and less history in Guardian, but I wasn't disappointed with
the book at hand. And, at 231 pages, no great time-committment is required.
Recommended.
I glanced through the online reviews for Guardian. About a third
wanted more history and less SF. Another third wanted more SF, and the
rest were happy with Haldeman's chosen mix. Um, Publisher's Review
panned it as "odd and unsatisfying". So YMMV.
Footnotes
Note 1) -- town of a thousand bad cliches. Yup, she
got the hell out of Dodge... Haldeman used to live nearby, in Oklahoma
(and grew up in Alaska). [back to review]
Note 2) Raven has roughly the same position in Northwest
Coast mythology as Coyote does in the American Southwest, or Loki in
Nordic myths. [back to review]
Note 3). They also make more sense than those HH
scenes. [back to review]
Note 4) You won't be surprised to hear that John Clute
has a copy of the Flammarion in his personal library. Ah, it's Lumen,
newly-translated by one B Stableford. [back to review]
Links
- Author's site: http://home.earthlink.net/%7Ehaldeman/
"My latest book is Guardian, a hard-sf [!!] novel set in 1894,
1952, 2004, and points beyond. It answers the age-old question 'What
should you do if a raven keeps appearing on your doorstep and giving
you advice?'"
- "Haldeman must be commended for his meticulous recreation of period
America."
--Paul di Filippo, who also wished for more SF. This is by far the
best review online, but **CAUTION -- SPOILERS**
http://www.scifi.com/sfw/issue296/books.html
Review by Peter
D Tillman; More of Peter D Tillman's reviews can be found at:
SF Site and Amazon.com. Google "Peter D. Tillman" +review for many more!
Elsewhere in infinity plus:
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