Haldeman, Joe
CAMOUFLAGE
Joe Haldeman
ACE Books 2004
Pb 289 pgs
ISBN#
0-441-01252-3
Ah, now this was a fine read! Of course, do
we expect anything less from Master Writer Haldeman? You don’t stumble over
this man’s writing, you fall into his stories.
CAMOUFLAGE is an atypical UFO story set mostly in the years 2019-2021 in Samoa where an alien artifact has been pulled up from the Tonga-Kermadec Trench where it had been buried for at least a quarter of a million years. This novel is a mystery that smoothly bounces back and forth between the program specialists who try to analyze this massive object with an unheard of density, and the story of the alien as it progresses, hidden among humanity. It is a very intelligent changeling that is nearly immortal. It has been a shark and a porpoise. It can be male or female. It can reassemble itself after being murdered. But it has a most challenging time mirroring human behavior and learning “the facts of life”.
The reader is pulled into this mystery with a curiosity as to how the pieces of the story will come together (I lost sleep because I couldn’t put it down). And to increase this driving tension, Haldeman introduces two other problems into the mix: another unknown alien, this one a humanoid chameleon with a lust for killing, and a government back in the U.S. with its finger on the trigger if the project out in Samoa turns dangerous.
This story is rich in world history and futuristic science. Haldeman, of course, pulls it off nicely with touches of romance and humor. As recent science fiction goes, this is one of the best because it show us all what it is to be human.Return to Reviews