A Separate War and Other Stories

While this collection is subtitled "36 Years of Award-Winning Stories," 12 of the 15 short stories included span the years from 1995 to 2005. Of the newer stories, "Finding My Shadow" and "Civil Disobedience," stand out from the crowd. The stories are angry, disenfranchised, and examine the the state of America during the Bush administration by looking into the future. Short stories, even from a writer as talented as Joe Haldeman, can be hit-or-miss--for instance, the "hard SF" piece "For White Hill" didn't work for me, since I'm not a big fan of "hard SF." Based on the shorts that I enjoyed, I'm definitely going to pick up some of his past collections (all out-of-print), including None So Blind: A Short Story Collection, Infinite Dreams, Dealing in Futures, and War Stories.

Joe Haldeman is one of my favorite writers. This is a great book of short stories that give you a glimpse into the breadth of his writing talent and also a look at his thinking and writing over time. Very interesting compilation. Worth your time to read!!

Haldeman has won all the awards possible and these short stories well illustrate why.

Joe Haldeman's A SEPARATE WAR AND OTHER STORIES gathers, for the first time, some fifteen tales of Haldeman's best works, from his first short story to later favorites, and will delight and surprise fans who know him best through his full-length award-winning novels THE FOREVER WAR and others. These retrospective stories come with in-depth author notes and provide a strong chronological assessment of the changing skills of a young writer who became an award winner in his genre. Diane C. Donovan California Bookwatch

This fifteen story collection showcases award winning Joe Haldeman, for the most part, at his best. Especially of note for fans of THE FOREVER WAR is the title tale, A Separate War; this time he tells the climax from the viewpoint of Marygay instead of from William as he did in the original novel. This reviewer reread the novel except substituting instead Marygay's finish for the William ending and found it still as strong. Most of the other fourteen tales can be found in recent (since 2000) publications while two entries, "Out of Phase" and "Power Complex", are over thirty years old, displaying a relative newcomer getting his legs underneath him (the plots were better used later in CAMOUFLAGE). Many of the other excellent tales portray a bleak future. A SEPARATE WAR AND OTHER STORIES is a strong compilation of one of the best science fiction writers of the past few decades. Harriet Klausner