Old Twentieth by Joe Haldeman
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(Hardcover)
- Pub. Date: August 2005
- 272pp
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Product Details
- Pub. Date: August 2005
- Publisher: Ace Hardcover
- Format: Hardcover, 272pp
- ISBN-13: 9780441012855
- ISBN: 044101285X
Synopsis
"The twentieth century lies hundreds of years in humanity's past. But the near-immortal citizens of the future yearn for the good old days - when people's bodies were unable to spontaneously heal, and disease and age were actual causes of death. Immersing themselves in virtual reality time machines, they are addicted to exploring the life-to-death arc that defined a lifetime so long ago." "Jacob Brewer is a virtual reality engineer, overseeing the time machine's operation aboard the starship Aspera. On a thousand-year voyage to Beta Hydrii, the eight hundred-member crew escapes the tedium of the trip within the artificial environment of twentieth-century Earth. But they get more reality than they expected when people entering the machine start to die." For the time machine has become sentient, evolving far beyond what its creators imagined. It has become obsessed with humanity - and wants Jacob Brewer to enter its confines and discuss this fragile state of being called life.
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. Agent, Ralph Vicinanza. (Aug.) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.
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Jennifer Wardrip - Personal Readby TeensReadToo
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November 12, 2008:
OLD TWENTIETH is the first book I've read by Joe Haldeman, and although I'm glad I read the book, I just can't help but be disappointed by the ending. It's hard to write a comprehensive review without giving away spoilers, but I'll try my best. That said, I gave the book 4 Stars due to the fact that it WAS an exciting sci-fi read, with a wonderful balance of scientific facts, dialogue, virtual reality, and human emotion.
The discovery of immortality led, inevitably, to the Immortality War. People who could not afford the high-priced Becker-Cendrek Process, which causes humans to become immortal, struck out against those who manufactured it, and in 2047 Earth found itself in the middle of a full-scale war. It ended with Lot 92, a biological agent that within five minutes killed off 7 billion mortal humans, leaving Earth with a much more manageable number of 200 million immortals.
In 2188, humans discovered the existence of Beta Hydrii, which was circled by at least one planet with free oxygen and water. Determined to discover if this planet, which would take at least 1,000 years to reach, could sustain a human population, a convoy of research ships takes off to check out its viability.
The main character of the book, Jacob Brewer, serves alternately as a chef on the convoy of ships and the chief engineer of the "time machine"--a full-scale virtual reality machine that can take people back into the past and immerse them in the culture of their chosen year. Inevitably, things start to go wrong during the journey to Beta Hydrii, specifically with those people who take trips in the time machine. What follows is probably the logical conclusion to such a tale, and really is an entertaining story--until the last couple of chapters.
I probably should have seen it coming. The logical series of events that leads up to the ending of OLD TWENTIETH isn't far-fetched if you've paid attention to the chapters preceding it. That said, however, I hated the ending. Like the movie(s) THE MATRIX, the beginning of the book started off with a bang; the middle was enjoyable; and the ending left me screaming in frustration.
For sci-fi fans, you'll enjoy this book. The trips back to the twentieth century via the time machine, although violent in nature and description, were truly interesting. As long as you know in advance that the ending is bound to dissapoint you, you'll be able to take the book for what it truly is--a story about human's obsession with death and technology, and how the two don't always mix.
he lost me on some things...by songcatchers
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October 25, 2008: Imagine being immortal. Of never having to worry about dying. Would you miss our life cycle? Hundreds of years from now, near immortal people are able to experience death in a virtual reality time machine. It's all fun and games....until people start dying for real. I loved the premise and originality of this book. It turned pretty creepy towards the end when we learn that the A:I for the time machine developed so much power and control over the starship. I only have a couple of complaints with Old Twentieth: I wish Haldeman would have done a better job explaining certain elements of the book because he lost me on some things. Maybe it's just my own lack of experience with science fiction though. I also thought the ending was pretty ambiguous. I would recommend this book to sci-fi fans or people interested in time travel.
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