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Old Twentieth (Mass Market Paperback)

by Joe Haldeman (Author)

4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)

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Product Details

Mass Market Paperback: 285 pages
Publisher: Ace (MM); Reprint edition (Jul 25 2006)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0441013430
ISBN-13: 978-0441013432
Product Dimensions: 16.6 x 10.6 x 2.2 cm
Shipping Weight: 100 g

Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)

Amazon.ca Sales Rank: #139,544 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)
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#7 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Authors, A-Z > ( H ) > Haldeman, Joe

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Product Description

From Publishers Weekly

Immortality can get boring after a while, especially when most of Earth's population and many of its treasures have been destroyed in a war between the haves and the have-nots. Jake Brewer, a virtual reality engineer, decides to liven things up by agreeing to run a virtuality machine on a starship looking for Earth-type planets. The passengers use the machine to roam through the recreated past, experiencing repeated virtual deaths because they have no expectations of real ones, until suddenly the oldest among them start dying seemingly of natural causes and the machine tells Jake, "We have to talk." This makes for an odd sort of locked-room whodunit. Is the newly sentient machine causing these deaths, or did the immortality treatment simply fail? Hugo- and Nebula-winner Haldeman (The Forever War) makes these questions tremendously compelling with his usual brilliant knack for detail and characterization. He draws the reader in even through a surprisingly boring expository first chapter, and the increasingly fascinating bulk of the tale makes the abrupt ending all the more shocking and unsatisfying. Haldeman's numerous fans will eagerly snap this one up, but few will reread it.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

In a world in which mortality has been defeated, people seek thrills and meaning with great dedication. Virtual-reality technician and cook Jacob Brewer joins the crew of Aspera on a thousand-year trip to Beta Hydrii and a new world to settle. The past accompanies them in a computer that lets them visit earlier times, when people's lives were shaped by the promise of death. The most popular destination is the last century of mortality, the twentieth. Trouble first shows in inconsistencies in the data from certain periods, and when someone dies in virtuality, there is understandable concern, especially because word from Earth is that something strange is going on there, too. Then an avatar of the machine, which has achieved sentience and is deeply curious about humanity, contacts Jacob. Reality and virtuality aren't as well-defined as we may assume they ought to be in Haldeman's nicely circular story concerned with the consequences of immortality and the potential of a truly convincing virtuality. Regina Schroeder
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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4.0 out of 5 stars Not Haldeman's best, but certainly an engrossing read, Oct 23 2006

By	Daniel Jolley "darkgenius" (Shelby, North Carolina USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)

Ce commentaire est de: Old Twentieth (Hardcover)

With more Hugo, Nebula, and other prestigious awards than he can probably keep track of, Joe Haldeman is a modern-day master that needs no introduction to science fiction fans. His 1975 novel, The Forever War, to take just one example, is unquestionably Science Fiction 101 material. In his latest offering, Old Twentieth, he offers a nostalgic look back at the good old twentieth century from a distant future where interstellar travel is practical, warfare is a relic of history, and man has seemingly gained immortality.

As we soon learn, however, this idyllic new world hundreds of years in the future came at the heaviest of prices. Ironically, the seeds of man's self-destruction were sown in its greatest triumph, the Becker-Cendrek Process. With the introduction of the BCP pill, man finally attained the ultimate prize of immortality. You could, of course, still die in some horrible accident or fall victim to some devastating attack, but death by natural causes suddenly became a thing of the past. Unfortunately, only the rich and powerful could afford BCP pills at first, and this eventually led to a cataclysmic war between the haves and have-nots, a war that ended rather suddenly and decisively with the introduction of a biological agent called Lot 92. Seven billion people died, leaving two hundred million immortals to rebuild and move on. It was only natural that this new society would eventually reach for the stars.

Jacob Brewer is one of eight hundred volunteers selected to join a five-ship, one thousand-year mission to the Earth-like planet orbiting Beta Hydrii. His primary responsibility, as chief virtuality engineer, is the management and oversight of the onboard "time machine." This is not a time machine in the technical sense; it's more akin to the holograph decks featured so prominently in Star Trek: The Next Generation. With mind-boggling bits of historical information at its disposal, this machine can, via its virtual reality interface, put you whenever and wherever you want to go in the past. By far, the most popular destinations are to be found in the 1900s, as a majority of these interstellar travelers seem to be fascinated by the prospect of death that defined an individual's life back in Old Twentieth. Fully immersed in the VR experience, you can get yourself killed in the most horrific of ways -- only to arise fit as a fiddle at the end of the simulation.

Suddenly, though, the unthinkable happens -- a couple of Jacob's clients actually die during VR sessions. As information is slowly exchanged with Earth across the gulf of outer space, Jacob sets out to determine if the machine could have possibly been responsible for these tragedies. As his investigation progresses, he begins to worry that there may in fact be a ghost in the machine -- namely, the machine itself. The impossibility of a time machine's Artificial Intelligence somehow attaining sentience on its own starts to lose its foundation when the machine's self-produced avatar sidles up to inform you that the two of you need to have a talk.

Some Haldeman fans aren't all that thrilled about the ending of Old Twentieth, and I have to admit its somewhat open-ended nature isn't as exciting or conclusive as I would have liked, but I think it does make for a satisfactory fit with the story leading up to it -- and, make no mistake, this is an author who really knows how to tell a story. The fact that this very good novel proves somewhat disappointing to some of Haldeman's fans just goes to show you how incredibly gifted a writer he really is.

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