The Coming
by Joe Haldeman

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Book Reviews of The Coming

Book Review: Disappointing
Summary: 1 Stars

From the beginning of the new book, I had a hard time falling into the story. The multiple-perspective structure of the narrative, although interesting, makes it hard to maintain enthusiasm for any of the characters. The rapid shift from one third-person perspective to another is jarring, not because the "voices" are so different, but because they're so similar.

Characters and subplots are included without any apparent connection to the plot, either. A porn actress, street bum, disfigured bartender, and several other characters are obviously provided solely to give the author a chance to provide background on his vision of an American near-future. That's okay, but why have them show up over and over? The book isn't long enough to justify this kind of filler material. Subplots are introduced and forgotten, as well -- the university chancellor's plot to get blackmail leverage on one of the main characters is completely ignored in the last half of the book, for one thing, and what was with the homosexuality obsession? If Haldeman had wanted to show a future which included hypocrisy and cultural intolerance, couldn't he have done it without throwing the plot out the window for the sake of the message?

Mostly I just didn't think there was enough material for a novel, here. It was a collection of pretty prosaic ideas on the near-future, with too many characters who play too small a role to justify their time on the page. And the characters themselves are incredibly two-dimensional, for Haldeman -- the villains are crazed, irrational fools, the heroes are harried, underappreciated idealists. When there is complexity, it's inexplicable, such as when the chancellor and dean are perfectly willing to set up (and indirectly kill) a co-worker who is helping them get blackmail information on a colleague. These are career academics, but this is a sensible or psychologically believable decision? (There isn't even any point to the blackmail scheme. It's just a mechanism to introduce some other characters and themes, and make the whole thing seem like a giant, hypocritical circus. Maybe if the book were 400 pages longer, this would have been the effect. Or maybe it just (....)

The book reads as if it were written very quickly, and the multiple-perspective gimmick seems intended just to keep Haldeman interested enough to finish the story. Why was this book published? Why wasn't the initial editor driven insane? Why didn't the printing presses burst into flame while producing the first run? Okay, that's silly, it's not that bad. The writing's good enough to keep you reading, anyway.

Actually, I have a theory here. I think Haldeman started working on this book, then threw it in the drawer and forgot it. Then he was pressed by his publisher for another novel, and he couldn't think of anything. ("Forever Earnestness?" "Forever Tacos?") So he hauled the manuscript out, re-read it a few times, drank a bit, threw it in the garbage, drank a bit more, pulled it out of the garbage, and then finished the thing in one hazy four-hour stretch at the computer, Bordeaux sloshing all over the keyboard.

And finally (just blowing off steam here, now), how about a little humor, Joe? Must every hero be troubled, desperate and earnest? Aren't there worthwhile themes other than mankind's predisposition to hypocrisy and self-destruction?

Summary of The Coming

Professor Aurora Bell receives a message from space that simply states, "We're coming." The message appears to be alien, and according to Professor Bell's calculations, the vessel that sent it is headed toward Earth and will arrive in three months. As the local population and the rest of the world begin to examine what a visitation from a superior alien force might mean, speculation looms about whether or not the message is a hoax. The arrival approaches, and Professor Bell and those around her become embroiled in the media circus. The politics and intrigue of the situation take on a life of their own.

Haldeman paints a vivid picture in The Coming of a world on the brink of another world war, where homosexuality is illegal, technology is advanced, and yet, humans really haven't changed that much. The tension in Florida is a microcosm that reflects the larger picture of Earth in trouble. But The Coming doesn't really get interesting until the final third of the book, and even then the ending is disappointing. Every few pages the story moves on to a different character, so most of the them are a bit flat. Haldeman has focused the story so tightly on one city that all the important events take place off stage and the characters have little to do but react. --Kathie Huddleston

Literature & Fiction Books

• Subjects > Literature & Fiction
• Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy
• Science Fiction > Adventure