Otto McGavin is peacefully idealistic by nature, an Anglo-Buddhist, who seeks employment with the Confederacion because he believes in its mission to protect human & nonhuman rights. The only problem is that the Confederacion needs him as one of its twelve Prime Operators for its secret service, the TBII. The TBII wants him as a spy, thief & assassin. It's not, of course, a problem for the Confederacion, which simply uses immersion therapy & hypnotic personality overlay for Otto's training, then sends him out in deep cover, encased in plastiflesh, on a variety of dangerous missions on a number of bizarre worlds. But for him, it's a different matter: what he has to witness & what he's forced to do take a terrible toll. Always he returns to his original self--his conscience stabbed by the memory of all those he'd killed in the service of interstellar harmony.

Together in one volume for the first time ever; his classic novel of epic future conflict, The Forever War, its sequel Forever Free, and the companion novel, * Forever Peace*. WAR William Mandella is a reluctant hero, drafted to fight in a distant interstellar war against unknowable and unconquerable aliens. But his greatest test will come when he returns to Earth. Relativity means that everey time he returns home after a few months' tour of duty, centuries have passed on Earth, making him and his fellows ever more isolated from the world for whose future they are fighting. FREE When Mandella returns for the last time he finds humanity has evolved into a group mind called Man. Living a dull life in an autocratic and intrusive society, missing the certainties of combat and feeling increasingly alienated, the veterans plan an escape. But when their ship starts to fail, their journey becomes a search for the unknown. PEACE 2043. The Ngumi War rages, fought by 'soldierboys', indestructible machines operated remotely by soldiers hundreds of miles away. Julian Class is one of those soldiers, and for him war is truly hell. But he and his companion, Dr Amelia Harding, have discovered something that could literally take the universe back to square one. For Julian, the discovery isn't so much terrifying as tempting...

The Arrival Is Imminent Joe Haldeman's novel The Comingis a tightly constructed near future thriller which begins by recapitulating a classic science fictional motif: the moment of first contact with an alien intelligence. The story begins on October 1, 2054. Aurora (Rory) Bell, a professor of astrophysics at the University of Florida, has just made the discovery of the century. A sophisticated sensing device called a gamma ray burst detector has picked up a message from somewhere beyond the solar system. The easily decrypted message contains two unambiguous words: We're coming. Subsequent analysis reveals that the source of the message is heading directly toward Earth and is scheduled to arrive on the first day of January 2055. A media circus inevitably ensues, as the citizens of Earth attempt to prepare for a wholly unprecedented event. From this point forward, Haldeman focuses not on the alien spaceship but on the social, political, and environmental conditions of a rapidly deteriorating planet. He envisions a 21st century marked by unpredictable weather patterns and geopolitical chaos, a world in which corruption is an endemic element both of private enterprises and governmental institutions. Controversial -- i.e., gay -- sexual practices have been outlawed. The electoral process has become a joke, ushering in a new generation of leaders who are incompetent and uninformed but intensely photogenic. Most significantly, the nations of Europe are flexing their muscles once again, marshaling their forces for an inevitable -- and catastrophic -- global conflict. Haldeman's portrait of the century to come is at once familiar and strange, enlivened by a steady flow of imaginative details: automated traffic control systems, virtual reality pornography, designer drugs tailored to the individual DNA. Haldeman shows us this world from the constantly shifting perspective of a variety of characters. Included among them are Rory Bell, whose initial discovery jump-starts the narrative; Norman Bell, a middle-aged composer with a history of "illegal" sexual behavior; Willie Joe Capra, a sadistic bagman with delusions of grandeur; and a nameless "historian," whose ruminations illuminate the cyclical patterns of violence present throughout recorded history. As always, Haldeman writes with clarity, economy, and wit, skillfully moving his extensive cast toward a climactic moment of revelation in which "hope and caution" predominate. The Coming is both a provocative, cleverly conceived entertainment and a compelling meditation on the eternal human propensity for violent solutions. It is speculative fiction of the highest order and reaffirms its author's position as a modern master of the form. --Bill Sheehan Bill Sheehan reviews horror, suspense, and science fiction for Cemetery Dance, The New York Review of Science Fiction, and other publications. His book-length critical study of the fiction of Peter Straub, At the Foot of the Story Tree, has just been published by Subterranean Press (www.subterraneanpress.com).

Carmen Dula and her husband spent six years travelling to the distant home of the powerful race known as "The Others," in the hopes of forging a truce. But by the time Carmen returns to Earth, fifty years have passed-and the Earthlings have built a flotilla of warships to defend Earth against The Others. But The Others have more power than anyone could imagine-and they will brook no insolence from the upstart human race.

Veterans of the intergalactic Forever War must brave an alien universe to escape mind-control slavery in this thrilling far-future sci-fi adventure. On virtually every list of the greatest military science fiction adventures ever written, Joe Haldeman’s Hugo and Nebula Award–winning classic, The Forever War, is ranked at the very top. In Forever Free, the Science Fiction Writers of America Grand Master and author of the acclaimed Worlds series returns to that same volatile universe where human space marines once engaged the alien Taurans in never-ending battle. While loyal soldier William Mandella was fighting for the survival of the human race in a distant galaxy, thousands of years were passing on his home planet, Earth. Then, with the end of the hostilities came the shocking realization that humanity had evolved into something he did not recognize. Offered the choice of retaining his individuality or becoming part of the genetically modified shared Human hive-mind, Mandella chose exile, joining other veterans of the Forever War seeking a new life on a wasteland world they called Middle Finger. Making a home for themselves in this half-frozen hell, Mandella and his life partner, Marygay, have survived into middle age, raising a son and a daughter in the process. Now, the dark truth about the colonists’ ultimate role in the continuation of the Human group mind will force Mandella and Marygay to take desperate action as they hijack an interstellar vessel and set off on a frantic escape across space and time. But what awaits them upon their return is a mystery far beyond all human—or Human—comprehension . . . In Forever Free, Joe Haldeman’s stunning vision of humankind’s far future reaches its enthralling conclusion in a masterwork of speculation from the mind and heart of one of the undisputed champions of hard science fiction.

Haldeman is best known for the Hugo and Nebula Award-winning The Forever War, a novel which draws on his experience as a combat engineer in Vietnam, where he was wounded and earned a Purple Heart. This omnibus collects the Carmen Dula sequence comprising Marsbound, Starbound and Earthbound, which chart humanity's response to the challenge of alien contact.

A Magazine of Science Fiction and Fantasy ISSUE 47: November 2020Lezli Robyn, EditorMartin Shoemaker, Assistant EditorTaylor Morris, CopyeditorShahid Mahmud, Publisher Stories by: Andrea Stewart, Nancy Kress, Michael Swanwick, J. Scott Coatsworth, Mike Resnick & Jean-Claude Dunyach, Barb Galler-Smith, Joe Haldeman, Dantzel Cherry, by John Haas, Jack McDevitt, Larry Hodges Serialization: Midnight at the Well of Souls by Jack L. Chalker Columns by: Gregory Benford, L. Penelope Recommended Books: Richard Chwedyk Galaxy's Edge is a bi-monthly magazine published by Phoenix Pick, the science fiction and fantasy imprint of Arc Manor, an award winning independent press based in Maryland. Each issue of the magazine has a mix of new and old stories, a serialization of a novel, columns by L. Penelope and Gregory Benford, and book recommendations by Richard Chwydyk.

A novel of the red planet from the Hugo and Nebula Award winning author of The Accidental Time Machine and Old Twentieth . Young Carmen Dula and her family are about to embark on the adventure of a lifetime, they’re going to Mars. Once on the Red Planet, however, Carmen realizes things are not so different from Earth. There are chores to do, lessons to learn, and oppressive authority figures to rebel against. And when she ventures out into the bleak Mars landscape alone one night, a simple accident leads her to the edge of death until she is saved by an angel, an angel with too many arms and legs, a head that looks like a potato gone bad, and a message for the newly arrived human inhabitants of Mars: We were here first .

From The SF Gateway, the most comprehensive digital library of classic SFF titles ever assembled, comes an ideal sample introduction to Joe Haldeman, one of SF's most decorated authors. Haldeman is best known for the Hugo and Nebula Award-winning The Forever War, a novel which draws on his experience as a combat engineer in Vietnam, where he was wounded and earned a Purple Heart. This omnibus collects the Carmen Dula sequence comprising Marsbound, Starbound and Earthbound, which chart humanity's response to the challenge of alien contact.

A New from the Hugo, Nebula, and John W. Campbell Award-winning author of Marsbound . Carmen Dula and her husband have spent six years travelling to a distant solar system that is home to the enigmatic, powerful race known as “The Others,” in the hopes of finding enough common purpose between their species to forge a delicate truce. By the time Carmen and her party return, fifty years have been consumed by relativity-and the Earthlings have not been idle, building a massive flotilla of warships to defend Earth against The Others. But The Others have more power than any could imagine—and they will brook no insolence from the upstart human race.

In the year 2084, nearly a half million humans have escaped pollution and overcrowding to live in the hollowed-out asteroids miles above the Earth. For Maryanne O’Hara—born and raised on New New York, one of several orbiting Worlds—the prospect of attending college on the home planet is both frightening and exhilirating. But things are very different down below. Violence, unrest and political fanatacism run rampant. And mixing with the wrong crowd can have serious, sinister and Worlds-shattering consequences.