Dealing in Futures

Joe Haldeman is one of those treasures you stumble upon... Wow, I wish he 1/4 as prolific as Asimov because I've already run out of his writings to read. This is a fantastic book.

Firstly I will admit my bias, Mr Haldeman is gifted, his best book is beyond my ability to describe accurately enough to do it justice, and his worst book is fantastic. He never fails to entertain and has again with every story in this book. Do yourself a big favour, buy this and all of Mr Haldeman's work, you will not be disappointed.Ian

Joe Haldeman is an excellent short story writer, as he proves in "Dealing in Futures." The book opens with the chilling novella "Seasons," about an outer space anthropological study gone horribly wrong. Another lengthy item is "You Can Never Go Back," which was originally intended to be the middle portion of Haldeman's best novel "The Forever War," and was actually included in later versions of that book. The best of the shorter stories include "More Than the Sum of His Parts," a graphic outer space horror story, the humorous "A !Tangled Web," an excellent historical story "Manifest Destiny," as well as several poems by the author. This work is nearly as good as Stephen King's short story collections. Any sci-fi fan or lover of a good tale should enjoy it.

I didn't enjoy this as much as None So Blind, but it's entertaining nonetheless. Haldeman has become one of my favorite authors not only because of his excellent novels (Forever War, 1968), but also his short stories. He makes reading a story or novella a pleasure due to his ability to present such vivid images without getting carried away. His characterization of aliens in the story "A !Tangled Web" is hilarious.

This is one of the best collections of short stories for the science fiction genre. If you liked Forever War, this one is a must read. The best things are the comments from the author at the end of each story. They add a flavor to it and you'll find yourself going back and reading it again with that added perspective.